


How We Help Each Other

by FireSoul



Category: Arrow (TV 2012), DC's Legends of Tomorrow (TV), The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-02-11
Updated: 2017-05-20
Packaged: 2018-09-23 10:44:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 29
Words: 80,325
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9652394
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FireSoul/pseuds/FireSoul
Summary: High School AU. Mick's just been released from Juvie and as part of being re-enroled in school he's put into a peer mentoring program. Everyone in the program, mentors and mentees alike, all have one thing in common; they don't want to be there. But the kids weren't picked at random, and despite having assigned roles sometimes the lines aren't so clear as to who is helping who.





	1. First Day of School

**Author's Note:**

  * For [AfflecksCanary](https://archiveofourown.org/users/AfflecksCanary/gifts).



> Ok so I was challenged to write a Beauty and the Beast fic for Foxfire (or whatever we're calling the ship of MickxAmaya.) Normally I'm not a fan of high school AU's but this is all that would come to my mind so I'm going with it. It'll mostly be Legend's characters but I'm sure some of the other shows will eventually make some appearances. Some people have been left as adults, and obviously some people who have a huge age difference are now the same age. I'm aware that not all of the characters were in high school at the same time, so i've decided to write this as if it were during the late 90's or early 2000's. (Basically I just don't want cell phones or anything more advanced than that for comedy reasons). So that's my little note, letting you all know that I have no idea what I just got myself into, let's see how this goes!

"This is stupid," Mick mumbled as he and Len, his best and really only friend, made their way down the not yet crowded hallway of the school.

It was Mick's first day back since being released from Juvie, a place he had already spent the better portion of his teenage years. He was taken in at fourteen, just a few weeks before he would've finished eighth grade, for the destruction of his home and the subsequent murders of his parents. They had given him schoolwork to do over the course of his sentence, and only once Leonard was thrown in and explained that if he didn't do any of the work he'd be tossed right back into middle school once he was out did he finally start doing just enough to qualify him for high school upon his release. At first he hadn't believed he ever would be released of course, but then the social workers told him that he wasn't being tried for murder and only for arson. The state hired lawyer somehow convinced the judge to reduce his sentence from five to two years. So here he was, starting high school at sixteen.

"I know," Len agreed, he had only been back at school for a month after serving his three-month sentence for a relatively minor theft. "But it's also pointless."

Mick grunted at the statement, "That supposed to make me feel better?"

Len sighed at his friend's comment, "Maybe," he relented just as they reached the door that lead to the guidance office. "Look, do you know who the kids are that get recruited for this peer mentoring thing?" He asked, rhetorically of course. "They're the same ones that are on the honor society, or at least close to it." He deadpanned, "Saying that they helped the screw ups looks good on their college applications, but whoever they stick you with I can guarantee will want nothing to do with you. They'll hang around you today so that they get the credit, and then they won't go further than just a smile when they see you in the hall." He explained and Mick nodded, he trusted Len's assessment of the program considering he had already been stuck in it for a month, that and Leonard very rarely made a misjudgment.

"Ok," the older boy said before taking hold of the door to the office, "See ya later," he said to his friend.

Inside of the guidance office there was a secretary who promptly, and rudely, demanded to know who Mick was looking for. He told her that he was looking for Mrs. Stein and she rolled her eyes as if appalled by the fact that he didn't already know where the woman's office was, and for the record he probably could've found it had she not jumped all over him the second he walked through the door. But she directed him to a small room just at the end of the office's even smaller hallway. Once there he peered inside the open door to find that the closet sized room was mostly dark, lit only by a single desk lamp, and there was a blonde woman sitting at the desk and rummaging around each and every drawer as though she had misplaced something.

Unsure of what else to do Mick remained silent in the doorway until the woman glanced up, and when she eventually did an embarrassed smile spread across her face.

"Hello," she greeted breathlessly as she sat up and pushed some of her hair away from her face. "You must be Mick."

Mick nodded but kept his feet planted where they were.

"Well don't just stand there. Come in, come in!" She beckoned and so Mick obeyed and went and slumped into the seat across from her, letting his backpack slide off of his shoulder and to the floor. "So, how are you this morning Mick?"

_"You've got to be kidding me,"_ the teenager thought to himself. It was almost laughable how frazzled and cheery Mrs. Stein was this early in the morning; it was certainly a stark contrast to the secretary out there who had clearly fallen off the wrong side of the bed this morning.

"I'm alright," Mick replied with a shrug and the most bored expression that he could manage.

"Good," the older woman replied with a bright smile before she promptly returned to her previous action of tearing apart the contents of her desk. "I'm sorry, I'm just looking for a form that I misplaced." She apologized and awkwardly Mick shrugged in response.

While she rummaged around for her paper Mick took the opportunity to glance around the small, and horribly lit, office. There were a few posters tacked to the walls, the ones with those inspirational quotes about success written on them. There was one more chair somehow crammed into the room, resting empty by the open door. The cluttered desk was mostly decorated with various knick-knacks and pictures, many of which showed a man with glasses and white hair along with a little girl of various different ages, but obviously the same girl.

"There now," Mrs. Stein proclaimed as she placed a piece of paper onto her desk and began smoothing the crinkles out of it. "I knew it had to be around here somewhere." She continued with a small laugh, she then eyed Mick but he continued to stare blankly at her desk.

He obviously wanted to be anywhere else on earth right about now, most of the kids who she summons to her office do. But she wanted to at least try and make him comfortable in here, so she opened her mouth to ask him something, anything, about his interests, thinking that might get him talking, when there was a knock on her open door.

At the sound of the knock Mick looked over his shoulder and was met with the sight of a girl with dark skin and even darker hair standing there, eyes asking whether or not she could enter.

"Amaya!" Mrs. Stein exclaimed, this woman really was too happy for this time of morning. "Come in!" She beckoned and so the girl did as instructed, grabbing the final chair and maneuvering it over to the side of the desk because getting it to the other side of Mick was just going to be too much of a hassle for everyone.

As she sat down Mick took in her appearance and determined that for once Snart's words might not be so reliable, as Amaya hardly resembled the description his friend had given of his own peer mentor. Leonard had described the girl he was assigned to as a wannabe Barbie, which didn't seem accurate for Amaya. She was clothed in black skinny jeans and a matching leather jacket, he couldn't see her shirt due to the jacket but he highly doubted that it was doused with glitter. Her tiger printed backpack also caught his attention, and he thought that just maybe he wasn't going to totally hate this girl.

"Mick, Amaya here will be your mentor. She's the honor society's newest member and vice president of the history club." Mrs. Stein gloated and while he did notice Amaya's obvious discomfort with the praise he still decided to revoke his previous thought; he was definitely going to hate her.

"So what?" He found himself asking, "I'm just supposed to follow her around or something?"

Amaya groaned at his apparently stupid question, really the only thing giving Mick any comfort in this was the fact that it didn't seem like she wanted to be a part of this any more than he did. Maybe Snart was onto something after all with his theory on the mentors.

"More or less," Mrs. Stein replied, "Amaya will show you around the school and see to it that you get to your classes, and to make that easier we tried to put you in a few of her classes. There's a meeting for everyone involved in the mentoring program today after school, I expect to see both of you there." She said sternly, as though she knew that at least one of them had plans of ditching.

"Don't worry, we'll be there." Amaya assured the counselor, her voice just as disinterested as Mick was convinced his own would be.

"Good," Mrs. Stein said, "Well that's all that I need from the two of you, and class is going to be starting soon, you should probably get going."

Mick was on his feet by the time she finished, more than ready to get out of here. Amaya wasn't far behind him, though she at least possessed the manners to wait until Mrs. Stein had finished speaking. But Mick didn't find himself waiting long for the girl to gather her backpack onto her shoulders and follow him out of the office, calling a "goodbye" over her shoulder to Mrs. Stein.

"Well, this should be fun." Mick grumbled as they exited the office and entered the now crowded hallway of the school.

"Just let me see your schedule so I know where to take you." Amaya more or less demanded, pulling him along with herself over to stand against a wall and out of the way of the other students walking laps around the square that was the first floor.

With and annoyed huff Mick shrugged his black backpack off of his shoulder and unzipped the main compartment. With one hand he held the bag and with the other he pulled out a crinkled up ball of paper and handed it over to Amaya.

"Here," he said, she looked slightly off-put by the papers condition but didn't comment on it as she took it and unfolded it's numerous edges.

"Ok," she mused to herself while her eyes scanned the schedule. "It looks like you have French first period which so do I, next you have chemistry while I have home economics." She continued to scan the rest of the list in silence before handing it back to him. "Ok, follow me to French, after that you're on your own for two periods but chemistry is just down the hall from French and besides the school is a square, if you get lost just look at the room numbers and don't turn around. So long as you're on the right floor you'll eventually end up where you need to be." She explained while he grudgingly shoved the paper back into his backpack. "Any questions?" She asked with a smile that he could've sworn held a hint of smugness, perhaps enjoyment of his misery.

"Yeah, how long do I have to be stuck with you?" He asked, cold, blunt, and only half sarcastic, just as had always been his way.

"Until they decide you don't need to be in the program," she answered seriously and not seeming to be even the least bit offended by his tone.

His eyebrows knitted together at her words, "They?" He asked, "Whose they?"

She shrugged at the question, "The people who put you in the program, you know assuming you didn't enroll yourself." She said and he fixed her with a deadpan glare, to which she nodded. "Didn't think so," she admitted and before she could say anything more the warning bell rang out, signaling that they only had three minutes to get to their homerooms; and of course they had been placed in the same one.

"Let's go," she huffed and set off, making Mick hurry to catch her.

"Hey!" He called, though it was needless considering it didn't take more than a few seconds for him to walk up beside her once again. "You didn't answer my question, who are  _they_?"

"I don't know," she replied as they entered the stairwell, the tightly packed crowd of students forcing Mick to walk behind Amaya rather than next to her and thus temporarily halt their conversation.

Once they were out of the stairwell and making their way down a corridor on the second floor, one that was still crowded but much less so than the stairs, he fell into stride beside her again.

"It's different for every person," she explained, "Mrs. Stein is a constant for everybody, as is Mr. Merlyn; the school adjustment counselor. After that it really depends, but usually one or two teachers, the guidance counselor you're assigned to if that isn't Mrs. Stein, and your parents."

Mick nearly stopped dead in his tracks when she suggested those people, and of course she noticed.

"What?" She asked, trying to hurry him along before somebody could walk right into him.

"Nothing," he insisted, commanding his feet to once again follow her as she led them to homeroom.

"Are you sure?" she asked as they entered a room and she nodded to the teacher, though Mick couldn't tell if that was a "hello" or a silent message that the stranger she had lagging behind her was the new kid. He decided that it was probably a little of both.

"Yeah just…" He trailed off, the facts clicking inside of his mind that  _they_ hadn't told her anything. She didn't know who he was, where he's been, what he's done. She knew about as much about him as he did about her, which was nothing. "I don't live with my parents." He finally decided to say after sliding into the desk next to the one that she had claimed for herself.

"Oh," she said softly, barely audibly. "Well whoever your guardian is then," she amended and Mick huffed as he slumped back into the seat. If that were the case then he was going to be stuck in this program for the rest of high school, hopefully Len was right about the first day being the worst of it.


	2. Familiar Faces

Mick Rory had always hated school; two years in Juvie didn't do a thing to change that. If anything those two years only served to make school worse. He had always figured that school and prison weren't so different but now he had experienced both sides first hand, and in fact they were nearly the same. One thing that he did find some entertainment in on his first day was being able to see all of the people he hadn't since before the fire. There were some kids in this school that he knew before, some he didn't, and most he figured he probably did know but they had changed too much for him to recognize. He saw Leonard walking around a few times; he even managed to find himself in the same English class as his friend.

"The verdict?" The younger boy asked sarcastically when his friend took a seat in front of him in freshman English.

"This place sucks just as bad as Juvie, but not as bad as middle school, not yet." The sixteen-year-old said in reply, turning to sit sideways in his seat and look his friend in the eye.

"Agreed," Leonard smirked as a girl began making her way to the seat behind him, or that's what Mick thought she was doing anyway.

"Whose the dipstick?" She asked, standing in the middle of the aisle and speaking with a hint of disapproval in her voice.

Now with reason to give her a second glance Mick looked up and saw that she was probably the same age as Len, fourteen, and was dressed from head to toe in black and drawing a purple lollypop out of her mouth as she eyed him in curiosity.

"Mick meet Felicity, Felicity meet Mick." Len introduced with a sigh, effectively ending the little stare down between the two.

Mick had heard about Felicity, Len had mentioned her during the one visit he had made between his own release and Mick's. She was one of them, so to speak. Not a jailbird, at least not yet, but a mentor kid. According to Snart it was her mother who first suggested she be placed into the program, and apparently the counselors in charge of it took one look at her record and enrolled her. Needless to say, Felicity was not currently on good terms with her mother.

"So you're the famous Mick," The black haired girl said as she took her seat behind Len but leaned over on her knees so that she was still able to see the older boy. "I was wondering when you'd be showing up, Leo here told me that it could be this week but he wasn't sure how many times you would ditch before getting caught." She said and Mick couldn't really tell if she was serious or if she was mocking him, though he was leaning heavily towards the latter. He also couldn't help but notice how Len rolled his eyes at her words, making it clear that whatever he had or hadn't told her she was exaggerating.

* * *

When lunchtime finally rolled around Mick had already found himself reunited with Amaya during the gym class that they had before, therefor he couldn't really be subtle about ditching her to go and sit somewhere else. He didn't really mind it, actually, as he wasn't assigned to the same lunch period as Len and so sitting with Amaya beat sitting alone. Besides, it probably only was for today. The thing he was most dreading was who Amaya would sit with. He was half expecting her to drag him over to a table full of prissy girls who would all begin to either mock or question him about every possible thing that they could think of. So he was a little surprised when she made a B-line for an empty table and set down her tray.

"No friends?" He asked in surprise but followed her example, wondering if she was just embarrassed of him and would rather not bring him around her friends.

"They'll be here," she assured him and he nodded. "So what do you think so far?" She asked as they sat down.

Mick shrugged silently in reply, he'd already answered this question once for Len and he highly doubted Amaya would take well to the reply that there wasn't much of a difference between this place and Juvie.

Just then two guys, each carrying lunch trays, came over to the table. Something about them looked oddly familiar to Mick, although he couldn't quite place what it was. One of them had pale skin and almost black hair, while the other had a lighter brown color for hair. That one seemed to be eyeing him wearily, while the other one's brown eyes bugged out at the sight of him.

_"Oh you've got to be kidding,"_ He thought to himself when the bulging eyes reminded him of exactly who these two were.

"Hey Amaya," the more composed one greeted cautiously; Nate, Mick remembered his name was.

"Mick Rory?!" The other one, Ray-freaking-Palmer, exclaimed as he sat down. "You're back?" He questioned and his words didn't sound like he was shocked that they let him out of Juvie, or like he was afraid of getting beat up like Mick would've expected. In fact the human puppy-dog almost sounded happy to see his old bully back in school.

"You two have met?" Amaya asked as her friends made themselves comfortable on either side of her, Ray claiming the seat between her and Mick.

"I used to steal his lunch money," Mick replied, taking the crappy cafeteria brownie off the other boy's tray as though to prove his point.

"Among other things," Nate grumbled none too quietly, taking a bite of his hamburger to avoid elaborating when Mick sent him a deadly glare.

"Yeah… but all that was a long time ago, bygones right?" Ray asked, only NOW seeming to realize that he should probably fear for his safety.

Mick continued to glare at him, while the eyes of both Nate and Amaya jumped between the two boys in case one of them, predictably Mick, made a move. But eventually Mick broke his glare and took a bite of his stolen treat and Ray relaxed.

"Sure," He agreed halfheartedly, his mouth still full of brownie. He didn't have much interest in shaking Palmer down for loose change anyway. They were older now, past the age of courtyard bullies and all that. Though the look that his social worker would undoubtedly have on her face when he got suspended on his first day back for wailing on a science geek was tempting, but he ultimately decided to spare her the headache.

"Right…" Nate trailed off, clearly not entirely sure he trusted Mick but also at least partially convinced that he wasn't going to pull anything at the moment, so he eventually relaxed and turned to Amaya. "So, are you coming tonight?"

Mick raised an eyebrow at the question, not that he knew shit about Amaya but he had known Nate for most of his life. Not well, but well enough to know that the kid wasn't the type to throw a house party, despite what his invitation to Amaya sounded like.

"Of course," Amaya replied automatically, "Why wouldn't I?"

Nate shrugged in reply and after that the conversation was interrupted by Ray blabbering something about an upcoming science fair; thus Mick lost all interest in the conversation.

* * *

When the final bell rang out after seventh period Mick thought that the day was finally over.

He was wrong.

He had completely forgotten about the mentor group meeting after school and with Amaya not letting him out of her sight the chances of getting away with ditching were slim to none. Sure enough she wasted no time dragging him down to the cafeteria where there were already a few other kids milling about. There were two that he didn't know, one a girl dressed in a black skirt and off the shoulder purple shirt with matching streaks coloring her dark hair. It was easy to tell the she was the mentee, and it looked like her mentor was the guy with dark red hair and his homework on the lunch table in front of him, considering she was nagging him about being a nerd and doing homework literally five minutes after spending the past six hours in school doing nothing but.

The next two were Felicity and a girl Mick could only guess was her mentor. He tried not to stare, but a part of him couldn't help it. He knew this girl, had since kindergarten. Her name was Caitlin Snow and she seemed just as surprised to see him as he was her. She didn't look much different than she had two years ago. Her red hair had darkened a little and was now pulled into one ponytail instead of two pigtails. She was dressed in a light blue skirt with a matching argyle sweater and was looking at him as though the sight of him made her want to find the nearest exit and run full force out of it. He couldn't blame her of course; it was no secret that she had been one of his favorite victims before going to Juvie.

Snart came into the cafeteria next with a short blonde hot on his heels who looked pissed as hell.

"I told you I got stuff to do!" Leonard shouted at her,

"So do I," she argued, "It's one mandatory meeting, meaning Mrs. Stein will call my mom and tell her if I didn't come. So deal with it."

"Look who showed up," Felicity snickered when the two marched in, a smirk on her face and her comment being all Mick needed to figure out that Snart and his mentor probably ditched a lot of these meetings.

"Well if we're on that topic," the girl in purple spoke up, finally abandoning her argument with her own mentor as she instead approached the rest of the group. "Whose the new guy?" She asked, one hand gesturing to Mick who scowled at her.

"Name's Mick," he replied coldly and she nodded, her deep frown making it evident that she did not approve of his attitude, or at least it being directed towards her.

"Helena," she introduced herself, "What'd you do to get stuck here?"

Mick continued to glare at her, not saying anything at first. It wasn't like what he had done wouldn't eventually get out, he knew that rumors about where he had been for the past two years before just showing back up today had already been a topic of discussion among the kids who he knew before. But be that as it may he wasn't exactly eager to admit that he had burned his family alive to anyone who asked.

"Ever heard of confidentiality?" Leonard snarked at the girl, who turned on her heels and rolled her eyes.

But before another word, or possibly a punch given this group, could be exchanged between the two teenagers the doors to the cafeteria flew open and in stumbled Mrs. Stein lugging one of those business suitcases behind her and clutching a folder that was practically falling apart in her arms.

"Oh good, you're all here." She exclaimed; Mick was starting to realize that being out of breath with a bright smile was this woman's everyday look.

"Do you need some help Mrs. Stein?" Caitlin murmured quietly, so quietly that half the kids didn't even hear her but yet the woman whom she had questioned somehow managed.

"Thank you Caitlin, but I'm all set." She assured the girl as she placed down her folder and straightened out its scattered contents before turning to address the group.

"Now then, I'm glad to see you all made it." She gushed,

"About that," Leonard quickly spoke up, "I really have somewhere that I need to be, how long is this going to take exactly?" He asked and while most of the kids probably thought that he was lying, Mick knew the truth. Snart did have somewhere to be, somewhere halfway across town. He had to get to the elementary school to pick up Lisa. Of course she could walk home herself, but if that happened there would be no one to keep her out of Lewis's hair until her brother got home and she ran the risk of upsetting him. Not to mention that things could be even worse if she made it home and their father wasn't there. There was no telling what she would do in the face of that fear.

"I'm only planning on keeping you here for half an hour Leonard," Mrs. Stein answered sweetly. "What is it that you're supposed to be doing?"

"Picking up my little sister from school," he answered, honestly, to Mick's surprised. But he supposed that the truth, when not including the consequences for not getting Lisa, seemed both innocent and important enough that sweet Mrs. Stein wouldn't be able to find it in her to force him to stay.

"What school does your sister go to Leonard?" The older woman asked.

It was beyond evident on Len's face that he couldn't see any use Mrs. Stein could have for that information, but whatever reason she had for asking he knew that he didn't like it. He also didn't like that in this situation, whatever it was; he couldn't tell if a lie or the truth would be better.

"Lincoln elementary," he finally replied, deciding to just go with the honest answer.

"I thought so," Mrs. Stein mused, "My daughter goes there as well and I have to pick her up after this, I'll give you a ride." She said simply before moving on, leaving Leonard speechless as he tried to process this turn of events and find an escape from it.

"Now," Mrs. Stein continued, "I would like to take a moment to welcome our newest members; Amaya and Mick."

"We've all already met," Helena deadpanned and no one missed how her mentor rolled his eyes.

"Actually I don't know his name," Mick said, pointing over to the mentor in question. Not because he was trying to defend Mrs. Stein of course, but he was genuinely curious as to the boy's name.

"Victor," the kid supplied, though apparently to the annoyance of Helena if her eye roll was any indication.

"Alright then," Mrs. Stein declared awkwardly, clasping her hands together and trying to get the attention of everyone. "If you all took care of introductions yourselves then we can get straight down to business." There were a few groans but she ignored them. "Now, as most of you know, community service is a required aspect of this program-"

"I didn't know that," Mick interjected but much like the groans his words went ignored.

"So I wanted to let you know that this Saturday there is going to be an opportunity. The community center is hosting their annual picnic and they need workers." She explained, a hopeful smile on her face.

"What if we don't go?" Mick asked, "Four of us are here against our will as is, you can't make us give up our weekend for it."

"Well Mick," Mrs. Stein began gently, clearly trying to avoid a conflict at all cost. "Regardless of whether you chose to enroll in this program or not you do get class credit for it, and if you don't complete the requirements you fail, just like any other class." She explained but, while Mick did find this as new information, it hardly changed his opinion about it.

It was quiet. The room filled with tension as everyone waited for Mick to say something. He wasn't the first to come in uninformed about the community service requirement or that the program was one of the schools few extracurricular organizations to hold the same weight as a class, and he certainly wasn't going to be the last.

"I'll be there," Sara finally said when it was clear that Mick wasn't going to break the silence.

"Thank you Sara," Mrs. Stein applauded, "Anyone else? None of you have exactly been going overboard with your hours lately."

Again more silence, everyone mentally running through their schedules in their minds and determining if they could work this weekend or if they could put it off a little longer.

"Well anything beats sitting at home with my mother," Felicity finally relented.

"Ugh, same." Helena agreed, "Vic and I will go."

At that Victor looked up from his homework, finally, with an incredulous expression.

"Excuse me?" He spluttered, "What makes you think that I don't already have plans for the weekend?"

"Do you?" Helena asked knowingly and as expected her mentor huffed in indignity.

"I'll be there," he agreed.

"I'm sure I'll get stuck bringing Lisa down there anyway, might as well get credit for it." Leonard said, his way of agreeing to go help out.

"I'm free Saturday, so I'll go." Caitlin said.

"So will I," Amaya seconded, leaving only Mick.

All eyes turned to him, waiting for him to say something.

"No," he finally said, grabbing his backpack from where he had set it down and slinging it over his shoulder. "This is stupid, I'm gonna drop out anyway." He declared before anyone could try throwing the failing crap in his face again. He headed for the doors, ignoring the sounds of both Mrs. Stein and Amaya calling him back. He didn't need this.


	3. Here to Help

After the meeting, which was cut short after Mick stormed out, Leonard found himself being ushered by Mrs. Stein into the passenger seat of her car. If this worked out in his favor then the ride to the school would be the best thing to happen to him all day. He would make it in time to get Lisa and then the two of them would walk home with no questions asked. But of course the universe isn't that good to any Snart and so Len just knew that this, somehow, would find a way to blow up in his face.

"I think that meeting went well," Mrs. Stein said as she slid into the drivers seat and got herself situated. Leonard scoffed and rolled his eyes at the notion, but kept his mouth clamped shut to keep a sarcastic remark from slipping out. "No?" She asked, not blind to the boy's reaction.

"No offence, but Mick did set a new record for shortest time in the club." He mocked in the nicest possible way he knew how.

"I know," the older woman sighed, "But hopefully Amaya will be able to talk some sense into him."

Len hummed in acknowledgment but said nothing; he didn't want to be the one to crush Mrs. Stein's delusion that every single person in their group didn't completely hate it.

"What do you think?" She asked, sending all his hope of avoiding this or any conversation out the window.

"I think…" Len drawled, trying to find the words that would do the least damage. "That Mick's a hothead." He finally decided on, "Give him some time to cool down, then maybe he'll be willing to listen."

"I certainly hope so," Mrs. Stein replied, "I know the four of you don't always think so, but this program really is to help you."

Len said nothing, her attempt to guilt trip him was not lost on him and he had no plans on giving into it. Thus the rest of the car ride awkwardly silent, not that your teacher giving you a ride isn't awkward enough on it's own, until they finally reached the elementary school

"Thanks for the ride," he said, getting out of the car.

"You're welcome. I can drive you and your sister home if you'd like." She offered but Len shook his head, a teacher getting anywhere near his house was just too risky.

"That's alright, we live just down the street and Lisa likes the walk." He half lied; Lisa does enjoy their walk home but they certainly live a little further than right down the street.

Nevertheless Mrs. Stein nodded and bid him goodbye before making her way down closer to the school's exit to wait for her daughter, Len choosing head over to his usual spot beneath a rather large tree further from the door.

* * *

The next morning Mick reported for homeroom on time, something he really only did so that he would be marked as present for the day, and sat as far as physically possible from Amaya. He didn't want to deal with her, so naturally he skipped French and then skipped chemistry while he was at it. He went to English where Leonard warned him that Mrs. Stein wasn't exactly thrilled about his walking out on the meeting while Felicity praised his actions, saying that it was about damn time one of them spoke up about the stupidity of the whole mentoring thing. When the bell rang for next period Mick decided he might as well show up and headed straight for the locker room. Halfway through changing into his gym clothes he groaned as he remembered that Amaya is in this class with him. Briefly he contemplated leaving but then he realized that the coach is currently in his office, which is right next to the locker room door; meaning he was almost guaranteed to get caught. So with a huff he finished changing and reported to the gym, Amaya coming out of the girl's locker room just a minute later.

As she marched over to him Mick was trying to tell himself to walk away or at the very least stop staring. But he just couldn't help himself. It had been awhile since he had seen a girl in anything but a prison jumpsuit, and even that was a rare sight considering Juvie kept the boys separated from the girls. It's not like Amaya was wearing anything all that revealing, just your typical black exercise shorts and a white t-shirt with the logo of some charity walk printed across the chest. The angry gleam in her eye, while it should've scared him, only served to turn him on all the more. He told himself that after two years in Juvie any girl would be able to do this to him, that it wasn't anything to do with Amaya.

"I'm impressed," she said upon reaching him, "I wasn't sure you would come back, considering you're dropping out anyway."

"Yeah well apparently that takes paperwork," He said while crossing his arms and rolling his eyes, not missing the sarcastic hum that Amaya responded with.

"Well then in the meantime you're stuck with me," she said and Mick scoffed.

"I am not stuck with you," he insisted, "My name is stuck on Mrs. Stein's stupid list. But you, Miss honor society, don't get to use me to make yourself look good. Find yourself another sucker."

It was then that the coach blew the whistle and the entire class lined up for attendance in accordance to last name, and Jiwe and Rory were just far enough from each other that the conversation couldn't continue.

"Ok listen up," coach Garrick began once he had finished with attendance, "We're going to go outside, I have the Frisbees set up along with water bottles on top of the wood stakes. Partner up." He instructed and so the attendance line disbanded as the group of students began heading outside, and Mick followed, but he didn't expect Amaya to appear alongside him.

"How about a deal?" She asked, peaking his interest.

"What kind of deal?" He asked as they walked outside, he made a point of not holding the door for her.

"Be my partner," she more demanded than asked, "I've played this stake game before, partners are competing against each other to knock the water bottles down." She explained, "If I win then you have to stay in school and the mentor program for the rest of the year. If you win then you can do what you like with your life and I won't ever bother you again, effective immediately at the end of class." She bargained and he chewed on the idea, the gambler in him very tempted to take the wager.

"Deal," he agreed.

* * *

"So let me get this straight," Felicity began with an excited/amused smile as Mick began telling her about gym class during their shared art class last period. "You staked the rest of the school year on a game of Frisbee, and lost?" She asked and Mick groaned in annoyance at the reminder, which of course only made the goth girl smile more. "See you Saturday," she snickered.

"It's not funny," Mick miserably insisted but Felicity only continued to laugh.

"Oh it's very funny," she insisted, her eyes never once leaving the gray lump of clay that her hands were trying to mold into a pot. "Who bets the next five months of their life on gym class?" She exclaimed and Mick decided that resting his head against his pile of clay might be an effective method for both flattening it and shutting his friend up.

In both cases the theory failed and Felicity only continued to laugh while the hard clay hardly changed shape at all. He didn't have the patients to listen to her mocking, but he wasn't exactly looking to start a fight with her in the middle of the art room either.

"I'm going to the bathroom," he finally muttered before rising from his seat and moving across the room to snatch the bathroom pass. He needed very badly to clear his head and didn't bother to tell the teacher that he was leaving, he would notice eventually.

He walked through the mostly empty hallways of the school, passing the occasional teacher or student every once and awhile and when he felt that he had done too many laps around the first floor he moved on to the second to avoid being caught. He made his way down the first hall, then the second, and then turned the corner for the third where something caught his eye. On the ground in front of a row of lockers was something, no, someone. Moving closer Mick saw, loathe as he was to admit the concern, that the unconscious figure was none other than Amaya. He quickened his pace, racing to get to her as though she would disappear or worse if he didn't.

"Amaya?" He asked once he was standing over her, but he received no answer. "Hey, Amaya?" He tried again, this time bending over to gently nudge her shoulder and he breathed out in relief when she stirred. Sure he was mad at her, but he isn't heartless. "Are you ok?" He asked as her eyes fluttered open and she groaned softly.

"Mick?" She asked, his hand was now gone from her shoulder and held out to her in order to pull her up, an offer that she accepted.

"What happened?" He asked, still worried not only by the pale complexion of her face but also by how much of her weight he was pulling. That worry only increased when he had her on her wobbly feet and she wound her arms tightly around his.

"I… I was uh… I," Her voice slurred as they walked down the hall, her eyes half lidded and before Mick knew it she was down again and pulling him with her. He just barely managed to get his free arm around her backside to ease her down.

He was starting to panic now, he needed to do something but he had no idea what. The obvious answer would be to call for help, but what good could help do? Help would peg him as having knocked Amaya unconscious and they didn't have time for that. Besides, what Amaya needed was to get to the nurse, and considering he had seen that the school elevator was temporarily out of service it wasn't like the nurse could get a wheelchair up here. So he went with the third option to cross his mind and adjusted Amaya in his arms until he could stand up lifting her bridal style.

She stirred only slightly as he did this, just enough to weakly loop her arms around his neck but aside from that it she was practically dead weight. She wasn't heavy, and surprisingly not as awkward to carry as Mick had feared she might be, but the stairs proved to be a challenge.

"Ok, just hang on Amaya." He said half to himself and half to the girl who didn't give much more than a grunt in acknowledgement when he looked down at the concrete steps. Carefully he took a step followed by another, and just as he thought he might be able to make it without dropping her she began adjusting herself in his grip.

"Mick?" She asked, her eyes blinking open once and then snapping open again in horror as she realized what was happening. "Mick-"

"Hey, calm down." He cut off her panic, they were halfway down the stairs and he didn't want to lose his focus at this point.

"Mick put me down!" She demanded, but didn't struggle, if only for her own safety.

"As soon as we get to the bottom," he promised and true to his word once they reached the final step he set her on her feet.

Amaya, her face still pale and her breath coming out in pants, kept her arms secured around Mick's neck even after she was standing, her knees nearly giving out yet again. She wanted to pull herself together, but the harder she tried the more she fell apart.

"Are you sure you can walk?" He asked her and despite how unsure she was she nodded anyway, she was determined not to faint a third time.

"Yeah," she replied and took a step, still holding onto him, and then another step before her body apparently decided to compensate for her refusal to pass out and she barely had time to unwind her arms from him and turn away before her lunch came surging back up her throat.

Mick cringed as he watched Amaya get sick, but once she was standing straight again, or something close to straight, he found himself instantly forgetting his discomfort and placing a hand on her arm.

"Are you sure you can walk?" He asked again while draping her arm over his shoulder, an action he wasn't entirely sure who initiated.

"Yeah," She replied, her voice breathless. "Just get me to, to the nurse."

Mick nodded, he had no qualms about that idea. Thankfully the nurse's office was only at the other end of the hall they had come out in because by the time that they got there Mick was dragging Amaya more than he was helping her.

Between himself and the nurse they got Amaya into a room in the back of the office that contained nothing more than two cots across from each other, a connecting bathroom, and no light bulbs as far as Mick could tell.

"I'll be right back with a cold cloth for her head," the nurse said once Amaya was lying on one of the cots, Mick still standing over her. When she promptly returned she gave the cloth to Mick and then disappeared yet again.

Mick stared at the cloth, then at Amaya, then back at the cloth, and then Amaya weakly reached up as if to take the cloth from him and so he sat on the edge of the cot and placed it onto her forehead.

The two of them were quiet, the only sound being that of Amaya's deep breaths as she tried to calm herself.

"Ok Amaya," the nurse said when she returned to the room, "Can you tell me what happened?"

Amaya sucked in a deep breath when the nurse spoke, and honestly Mick wasn't entirely sure that she would be able to tell them what had happened.

"We… we were watching the tetanus video in health class." She explained before she needed to take another breath, "I just… It was just too much to handle." She said and the nurse nodded sympathetically.

"Ok," she said, "School's going to be over in ten minutes, just spend the rest of the period in here." She said before leaving the room once more.

Once she was gone Mick looked questionably at Amaya, who was very clearly avoiding his gaze.

"Didn't take you for the squeamish type," he finally commented, adjusting the cloth less than an inch because that's what he'd seen done on TV.

"I'm not usually," she promised, "The video was about the people who don't get vaccinated from tetanus; over in North and West Africa. I was one of the lucky ones." She mused, "But seeing those people in so much pain… some of the villages were only a day's journey away from mine."

"You're from Africa," Mick stated it more than asked, his interest peaked and even more so when Amaya nodded.

"A small village called Zambesi," she informed him with a sentimental smile, the taste of her native tongue in even just one familiar word feeling sweet on her lips. "I moved here last year, my mother told me not to focus on what I was leaving behind."

Mick wasn't sure what to do with this information, or if he should even be listening to it. He knew that he should've returned to his class the second Amaya was on the cot, or at the very least gone up to her class to collect her backpack so that she wouldn't have to go back up there through the crowded halls of students trying to leave once the final bell rang.

Yeah, that was something he could do.

Leaving the cloth on her head he rose from his seat beside her, "I'll be back," he promised, feeling her curious eyes on him as he left the office.

He would never admit this of course, but as he left that office and maneuvered his way through the crowd of students after the bell rang he could've sworn that he might be actually starting to care about Amaya. Sure getting her to the nurse was just the decent thing to do as a human being, but what business did he have retrieving her backpack for her?

_"You're and idiot Rory,"_ he thought to himself in what would've been a low grumble of a tone had he been speaking aloud,  _"They warned you about letting the first girl you see get under your skin."_ His inner voice continued to warn and as he made his way back down the halls with Amaya's bag now slung over his shoulder he told the voice to shut up, that Amaya wasn't going to get under his skin, that at the very most she's just a friend.

But then again, that's how it always starts.


	4. The Picnic

Felicity wasted no time in getting out the news to the rest of the mentoring club that Mick would be staying, much to the boy's annoyance. Of course she didn't leave out the details about the reason he was staying. Helena and Sara each gave him their own versions of a knowing smirk when he passed them in the hallway that next day, Victor didn't even acknowledge him, and Snart made it his personal mission to endlessly tease him about it. None of that compared with Mrs. Stein, however, who either didn't know what changed his mind or didn't care and decided to show how happy she was that he'd be staying by wrapping the boy in a bone-crushing hug. Maybe that should've been the moment in which Mick ran for the hills, but instead he just sucked it up and rolled out of bed at nine a.m. on Saturday morning, which that alone should be worth some credit due to the ungodly hour, and hauled his ass out of the house without a word said to his foster parents.

He dragged himself through the suburbs of Central City until he met up with the Snart siblings, the younger of which skipping a few happy paces ahead of the older.

"Wasn't sure you'd show," Len teased when he spotted his friend, "Lisa, wait up." He ordered the little girl ahead of him.

Lisa stopped her skipping and turned back with a curious face at her brother's order, a face that grew even more curious when she noticed the strange boy who had suddenly appeared along side him.

"Lisa, this is my friend Mick." Lenny introduced the boy as they approached. She had heard about Mick before, he was a friend that Lenny made while he was in jail. He told her that Mick was out of jail now and would be helping at the picnic today with the rest of their club from school. Lisa tried to study the boy by looking up at him, he was big like Lenny and had short spiky hair that she really wanted to touch; it looked really fun. But he was looking down at her with the same narrowed eyes that daddy uses when he's trying to figure out if he should punish her or not, only it didn't look as scary on Mick.

"Hey squirt," he finally said in a voice that wasn't mean, but not exactly nice either.

"Hi," she mumbled shyly before pressing her weight into Lenny's legs and raising her arms up to be lifted, she also made sure to add a pleading look to her eyes for good measure.

Lenny sighed, a sigh that said that he knew he shouldn't give into her babyish behavior now that she's five-years-old but also that he was, in fact, giving in. She smiled brightly as he lifted her up and balanced her on his hip, her arms locking around his neck for good measure.

Mick watched the exchange before him unfold with a curious interest. Len had talked a lot about Lisa back when they were in Juvie together, but it was still odd to see the two of them together. He hadn't exactly been able to picture Len, the scrawny stick of a kid that he is, as anyone's protection against someone like the man he had described Lewis Snart to be. But the way that Lisa looked at him, the way that she clung tightly to his shoulders as though she never wanted to leave his arms, it was clear that she trusted him with her life.

When they got to the back field of the community center they found there were people setting things up all over, and among those groups was Mrs. Stein, Caitlin, and Sara setting out a few fold out tables.

Upon seeing the next two members of their group approaching Sara abandoned her task and headed over to greet them, Mrs. Stein not far behind her whilst Caitlin remained focused on opening the tablecloths.

"You actually showed up?" The blonde questioned the both of them before her eyes wandered to the kindergartener practically attached to Len. "Is this your sister?" She asked with a friendly smile and Len nodded, trying to set Lisa down but to no avail.

"Sara meet Lisa, Lisa this is Sara."

"Hi Lisa," Sara cooed but Lisa didn't appear to be any more comfortable meeting her than she had been upon meeting Mick.

"Hi," she murmured softly, laying her head against her brother's shoulder as if to warn him against another attempt to set her down.

"Oh good, you boys made it!" Mrs. Stein exclaimed as she approached the group, her face brightening even more at the sight of Lisa despite how the little girl turn her head away and tightened her grip on her brother. "Oh, and who is this cutie?" The older woman gushed, seemingly oblivious to the little girl's uncomfortable reaction.

"This is Lisa," Len said, "And she's a little shy." He continued apologetically.

"That's alright, why don't you two go get some pumpkins out of that crate over there?" She suggested as though they had a choice. "Amaya and Felicity will be here soon," she continued, "Helena and Victor are inside grabbing some kick balls for the kids, they should be out soon." She said before walking off and returning to the table she had been setting up.

"Yeah, depending how fast they are in the supply closet." Sara snorted as she turned back to return to her task of helping with the tables. Of course what she had insinuated was not lost on Mick, and the tabs Helena seems to keep on Victor despite  _him_  being  _her_ mentor suddenly made sense.

"Where did she get pumpkins in the middle of February?" Len's question pulled Mick from his thoughts as his friend finally set his sister down and took to bending over the rather large crate filled with sugar pumpkins.

"Who knows man," Mick replied, already bored as he lifted one of the small vegetables and experimentally weighed it in his hands. "My question is, why?"

"Painting," A female voice replied from over his shoulder, spinning around Mick saw his own mentor had appeared behind him. "Although as for the where I'm as lost as you two," she admitted, "All I know is that she got these for the kids to paint."

"So we're in charge of the kid stuff?" Mick grumbled and Amaya shrugged.

"We're wherever they need us," she answered, "But yes, it looks like that's the kids area."

He moaned in annoyance at the idea, and briefly wondered what made Mrs. Stein think allowing two junior criminals to run the kid's section was a good idea. She must know his and Len's backgrounds; they were the reason that the two of them were stuck in this program after all. But he's not exactly looking to go back to Juvie just yet, so he sucked it up and unloaded the pumpkins for at least twenty minutes with Amaya while Len walked off, and soon enough a nearby argument between Sara and the missing criminal caught his ear.

"No!" The dark haired boy snarled as he pushed the girl's offending hand away from his face, an action that only appeared to discourage her a tiny bit.

"Come on Len!" She whined, "I've never done this before, I need to practice on someone!" She continued to plea. Between two of the fingers that Len had pushed away was a cotton swab, it's tip colored with something pink, and in her other hand was an ice-cube tray with more cotton swabs poking out of it.

"Get Smoak!" Len shouted, still actively evading the swab. "She puts all that gunk on her face anyway!"

"And I will not have Sara messing it up," Felicity interjected before pulling her tube of black lipstick out of her bag and needlessly reapplying another layer as so to prove her point.

Len rolled his eyes at her antics before the unwanted cotton swab once again moving towards his face distracted him. Again he shoved Sara's hand away and took another step backwards, practically standing in a thorn-covered bush already but totally worth it if it kept that damn face paint away from him.

"Come on, I'll even let you pick what you want!" Sara bargained,

"I want your paint far away from me!" Leonard shouted.

"Can you do me?" A little voice quietly squeaked, but just loud enough to get the attention of the bickering teens. Looking down they saw Lisa standing there, watching this entire scene for who knows how long before she finally decided to pipe up.

"Yeah, paint Lisa's face." Len quickly encouraged, never before had he been so grateful to have a significantly younger sister.

"Ok," Sara agreed with a shrug and Lisa's face lit up brightly at the notion that she was actually going to get her way.

Taking the little girl by the hand Sara walked over to her table, happily inquiring about what Lisa would like to have done.

"Man, I was hoping he'd fall on his ass in that bush." Felicity snorted, standing now next to Caitlin against the wall of the building.

"Hm," The older girl acknowledged but didn't look at Felicity and instead kept her gaze fixed on something in the distance.

Curious, Felicity followed her mentor's line of sight until she caught sight of the barbeque area and had to stop herself from laughing. The eight of them weren't the only kids from the high school looking to pick up community service hours here; a few other honor society kids were also working a few things here and there. One of those kids was turned out to be one of the football team's best wide receivers, Ronnie Raymond.

"You like him?" She asked and that got Caitlin's attention.

"What? No!" The shy girl snapped in defense and Felicity just couldn't hold it in anymore, she bent over and slapped her knee laughing so hard that Caitlin began looking around to make sure that nobody was nearby.

"Stop it!" She hissed.

"I'm sorry," Felicity managed through her laughter, "Sorry." She repeated, calming herself and straightening up this time. "Why don't you go talk to him?" She asked and Caitlin's eyes widened as though she had just suggested the worst possible thing that a person could.

"Are you nuts?" She demanded and the younger girl shrugged.

"Not really," she replied, despite being fairly certain that the question had been rhetorical. "I just think that the picnic's just starting so there's barely anybody here, whereas later you'll both be busy and you might not have a chance to talk to him-"

"No!" Caitlin cut the goth off with a hiss, "I can't talk to him!"

"Why not?"

"Because I've known him since like third grade and I've never said two words to him! I can't just go up and talk to him after all these years!"

"Wow," Felicity chuckled at her mentor's exasperated and ridiculous reasoning, "That may be the most pathetic thing I have ever heard." She deadpanned and Caitlin growled in defeat. "Please don't tell me you've had this crush since third grade?" She asked and the face Caitlin made said it all. "Oh my god," She said, a hint of laughter still coating her voice.

"Can we please stop talking about it now?" Caitlin practically begged and with a laugh and malevolent smile Felicity shook her head.

"Oh no," she denied, "No you are going over there, right now." She ordered, seizing Caitlin's wrist and attempting to drag the girl off only to have her dig her heels into the ground and god the science geek was a lot stronger than she looked.

"No," she protested, refusing to be led anywhere but Felicity continued to try.

"Come on!" She ordered, digging her own heels into the dirt to give her leverage but Caitlin wasn't budging.

"No!" She continued to protest and their little tug of war got to the point where Felicity was sure she was about to yank Caitlin's entire arm out of it's socket, but still she wouldn't be moved.

"Girls whatever is going on over here stop it!" Mrs. Stein's commanding voice finally prompted Caitlin into yanking her wrist out of Felicity's hands altogether and send the other girl stumbling back.

"Sorry Mrs. Stein," she apologized but Felicity only rolled her eyes. Once Mrs. Stein was preoccupied with the pumpkin table, which only took about a second, Felicity turned back to her mentor.

"You will talk to him," she almost commanded, "Mark my words on that," she continued and then making an "I'm watching you" gesture she walked away and went to join Helena and Victor at their craft table.

Once the picnic was about an hour underway more and more people started coming the kids station got busier and busier. Still Mick managed to hang back a little bit; assigning himself to the job of making sure nobody got extensively injured playing with the kick balls and Frisbees. Amaya, meanwhile, wasn't too far from him over at the pumpkin painting table. He observed as she tied smocks around the waists of some of the younger children, a bright smile on her face as she spoke both to the children and their parents. He heard one old woman, probably one of the toddler's grandmothers, praising her for spending her Saturday here helping and that she was doing such a good job and she was a natural with children. He stopped eavesdropping after that. Words such as those were things that he would never hear spoken to him. Maybe once he had a chance, maybe once he could've done something that would have him seen as one of the few good teenagers in the eyes of some random old woman.

But not anymore.

He traded in any chance of that when he lost control of that lighter fluid.

But his attention was drawn back to Amaya when he noticed that not only was the elderly woman gone but Pretty Boy Nate had sidled up along the edge of the table and judging by the way Amaya was needlessly gathering supplies and busying herself Mick doubted that she wanted him there.

"I'm just saying that you don't need to subject yourself to this," Mick heard him say as Amaya replaced some paint cups and wiped off the fingers of a little boy.

"And I'm just saying that while it's sweet that you worry about me you don't need to," She replied, straightening up and tossing her wet paper towel into her trash bag. It was at that moment that she noticed Mick slowly making his way towards the table, and if the boy didn't know any better he just might have said that she actually looked relieved to see him coming her way. "Mick, what's up?" She asked, Nate turning around and narrowing his eyes.

Oddly enough that gave Mick a rather satisfied feeling.

"Not much," he replied, "Most kids lost interest in the balls, you need anything over here?" He offered and she smiled a smile that was every bit as mischievous as it was grateful.

"Things are pretty calm here, but would you mind holding it down while I run to the bathroom?" She asked and Mick nodded while Nate practically growled.

"I can do that if you want," he offered but Amaya waved him off.

"Mick can handle it, I'll only be gone a few minutes. Besides, Mrs. Stein will be thrilled to see someone in our group doing more than they were assigned. Thanks Mick." She said before speed walking off.

The instant that she was gone Nate turned towards Mick, who met his angry face with a smug grin.

"Stay away from Amaya,"

Mick scoffed at the warning, was he serious? "Believe me Pretty, I'd love to." He said, "I'm stuck in the stupid mentor program until the end of the year. After that I'm dropping out of high school. Believe me, I'm not interested in your little girlfriend."

Now it was Nate's turn to scoff. "You think that's what I'm worried about?" He asked, rhetorically of course. "Please, I just don't want you to hurt her."

"I don't know if you've noticed or not, but she's not exactly interested in me either. So how could I possibly hurt her?" Mick asked; his arms crossed as Nate met his eyes.

"That's not the kind of hurt I meant," he said and Mick's eyes widened.

_Oh_

"There were two theories, Mick, when you disappeared." Nate continued, "One was that you were dead. The other was that your parents' dying while there was no mention at all of your fate after the fire wasn't a coincidence. Now you're back, so clearly, you're not dead." Mick looked Nate in the eye with a glare that was meant to warn him, but he clearly he didn't care. "Did you kill them?" He dared to ask and the next thing Mick knew he was seeing red, and his fist was connecting with Pretty's jaw.


	5. Only Trying to Help

"Oh no," Leonard muttered to himself.

He had seen his friend approach the pumpkin table and watched with a skeptical eye as Amaya ran off towards entrance into the community center and left Mick alone with Nate Heywood. Now Len didn't know much about the guy, just that he's Ray Palmer's older cousin and friends with Amaya. But if he's anything like his cousin than Mick certainly wasn't the type of guy that he would get along with, nor would he know when to shut his mouth. Sure enough he said something that obviously rubbed Mick the wrong way and earned himself a punch to the face. Abandoning his own station, watching one of the craft tables, Leonard hurried to start some damage control but Mrs. Stein was already standing between the two other boys by the time he got there.

"What is going on over here?" She demanded and not surprisingly both boys avoided her eyes and kept their mouths shut.

When it became clear that she wasn't going to be getting an answer out of either of them she turned to Mick, after all Nate isn't here under her supervision.  
"Mick, unless you explain yourself I am going to have to ask you to go home." She threatened.

Leonard watched Mick almost helplessly, there was nothing that he could do to help and when Mick turned around without a word he felt his blood boil. He may not know WHAT Nate had done to earn himself a punch in the face, but he knew the guy had probably deserved it.

* * *

Meanwhile, just before things with Mick and Nate went south, Lisa had been running around the field with some of the other young kids. The late February air was warm and since Central City hadn't seen a snowfall since December many of the kids were discarding their jackets. With their sweatshirt's lying on the ground and Sara's artwork already covering every workable inch of their faces some of the children had decided to ask the teenager to paint her designs on their arms as well. Lisa, after seeing a girl with a bright pink heart on her bicep, decided that she too wanted more than her purple butterfly mask and bounded over to the face painting table just as Sara finished turning a little boy into a tiger.

"Hey Lisa," the teenager greeted, wiping the excess paint off one of her cotton swabs.

"Hi, um could you do a flower on my arm?" Lisa asked and Sara smiled at her.

"Sure, take a seat." She replied and so with a big grin on her already painted face Lisa plopped herself down on the folding chair right in front of Sara and overturned her right arm, happily waiting as Sara brought out a few new cotton swabs.

"Ok, what color do you want?" The teenager asked once she had all her stuff reorganized.

"Pink and blue!" Lisa excitedly announced.

"Pink and blue?" Sara mock questioned with a friendly voice and bright smile, something she had learned over her months as a babysitter was a good way of asking kids if they were sure about something. "Ok then," she said when Lisa gave her a rather enthusiastic head nod. She then picked up her green swab to do the stem with and took a gentle hold of Lisa's forearm; and she hoped that she was able to stop her frown before the girl noticed.

She had been babysitting as a means of work for about a year now, and last month she finally took an official certification course. She did this partially because her mother wanted her to, and partially because people are more willing to hire someone who has been CPR certified over someone who hasn't. The course also taught her how to recognize subtle signs of domestic abuse, particularly in children. Now maybe it was the paranoia from having taken the course so recently, but Sara could've sworn that the little circle on the inside of Lisa's elbow looked a lot like a cigarette burn. But she smiled and painted on; Lisa didn't tense this time but thinking back she had flinched away earlier when Sara had first gripped her chin in order to hold her still for the butterfly. She had written it off as her being shy, being a five-year-old, but maybe there was more.

"Hey!"

A shout caught both her and Lisa's attention, the two of them whipping their heads up to see Nate Haywood stumbling back from a very pissed off looking Mick with a clenched fist. Leonard was running over to the scene, leather jacket still hanging open and exposing the sweater underneath despite the warm weather. Sara began to wonder if she had ever seen him in short sleeves and quickly determined that she hadn't.

"What's going on?" Lisa's scared voice snapped the blonde from her thoughts and back to the little girl in front of her.

"I don't know," Sara replied as she realized Mrs. Stein was now separating the two boys. "But Mrs. Stein is handling it, so don't worry."

"Is Mick gonna go back to jail?" Lisa all but whimpered.

"What? No, no he won't." She assured the little girl, she hadn't known that Mick was ever in jail, or Juvie most likely, but it didn't exactly shock her. She had heard all the rumors about how Juvie was where Leonard had spent the first part of the school year and he certainly made fast friends with Mick. "Don't worry. Mrs. Stein will talk to him, he might get in trouble but he's not going to go to jail."

She didn't miss how Lisa didn't seem at all reassured when she was told that Mick would be punished.

"Don't worry, Mick will be fine. Still want pink and blue for your flower?" She asked gently, figuring that it might be best to distract Lisa from the situation.

"Mhm," Lisa murmured and nodded, she allowed Sara to finish the flower before she promptly thanked her and returned to her game of tag with the other kids.

* * *

Felicity had been on her way over to the food area of the picnic when the sound of Mrs. Stein getting between Mick and Nate interrupted, so she did get a little distracted. But once Mick trudged off it was obvious that nothing else was going to come of the issue, at least not publicly, and so she continued back on with her original mission. Now for the record Felicity did understand what Caitlin was talking about when she was saying that she couldn't possibly talk to Ronnie, after all the social hierarchy of high school isn't lost on her. Therefor she knew that she wasn't, technically, supposed to talk to her detention buddy outside of detention but hey, aren't rules meant to be broken?

She approached the hockey player from behind; he was helping some of the other sports guys work the big grill and one advantage to that was he couldn't run away from her.

"Hey Wild Dog," she said as she tapped him on the shoulder.

When Rene Ramirez felt a tap on his shoulder he was expecting it to be his coach lecturing him on flipping burgers the wrong way, but when it was accompanied by his nickname and said in the mischievous female voice of his favorite little freshman he knew that it was much, much worse.

Sure enough he turned around and was met with a smirking goth face that practically screamed trouble.

"What do you want Smoak?" He asked and unsurprisingly her smirk grew in response to his already annoyed tone.

"I need a favor," She started

"Let me stop you right there, no way." He cut in, "I am not keeping lookout for you while you hack the school's files again."

"Calm down, it's nothing like that." She assured him, "I just need you to talk to Ronnie for me."

Now Rene was confused, so confused in fact that he actually looked behind him at the wide receiver before turning back to Felicity who nodded at his unasked question.

"Why can't you talk to him yourself?" He finally asked and Felicity rolled her eyes.

"Because I don't know him," she said it like it was obvious, "Look, it's nothing much, I just need you to convince him to talk to Caitlin."

"That girl Stein forces you to hang around with?" He asked and Felicity nodded.

"Trying to get her off my back," She partially lied, in all honestly she felt a little sorry for Caitlin and how she was apparently living in fear of the unwritten social norms of school and wanted to show her a less pitiful view of the world. "She's got a thing for Ronnie, but don't tell him that. I don't want to freak her out too much, I mean just the idea of him talking to her could probably give her a heart attack. Well not an actual heart attack but maybe more of a panic attack but-"

"Ok," Rene cut off her stammering, "Don't freak her out, I got it." He said and Felicity smiled. "But you owe me," He quickly exclaimed and her smile grew even wider with the promise of a chance to get into more trouble.

"You know where to find me," she teased before stealing one of his finished burgers and walking away.

* * *

"You punched someone?"

Mick sighed and avoided eye contact, if there was one person he hated getting the third degree from more than his caseworker, it was his foster mother.

"The hell were you thinking?" John, his foster father, chimed in and Mick rolled his eyes but remained silent.

"Mick!" Lyla, his foster mother, snapped but he still wouldn't look up at her. "This isn't funny Mick," she told him sternly, "You've only been out of Juvie for two weeks and already you're hitting people?" She demanded but again he didn't say anything, just sat there silently and endured.

"Look at us when we're talking to you Mick," John calmly demanded, leaning back on the stool he had opted to sit on as he crossed his arms and watched with satisfaction as the teenage boy on the edge of the chair slowly looked up at Lyla.

"Do you have any idea what could happen to you Mick?" She demanded and he scoffed.

"For a punch?" He almost laughed by Lyla's clearly unamused glare wiped the smirk clean off his face.

"Yes," she seethed, "Because you're on thin ice as it is."

"They can't send me back to Juvie for one punch-"

"But they could take you away from us." John interrupted his interruption. Of course when he did Mick looked at him as if he wanted to laugh at the idea of that being a punishment. "I know you don't think so Mick, but there are a lot of places worse than us where you could've been sent."

Lyla nodded in agreement at her husband's statement, Mick didn't know this but the court had been all set to send him off to military school before the two of them stepped in. The only reason the judge agreed to let them foster him was because they're both former Special Forces.

"And it doesn't end with you," she added, "What about Amaya?" She asked, "Do you think it's good for her record if the kid she's mentoring is getting into fights? Or us? Do you think we'll be allowed to foster other kids if the first one we've ever taken in got in a fight after less than a month?" She demanded,

"And what about JJ and Sarah?" John asked, referring to his and Lyla's twins who were just barely two years old. "Do you think CPS won't investigate us in regards to them, won't consider taking THEM away just on the reasoning that we had you for two weeks and you punched a kid out?" Now John was getting angry, and Mick had heard enough.

"Right," Mick said with a smile that said he was just as angry as John. "It's my fault." He stated, "I'm the bad guy. I might have ruined Amaya's future, your lives, and landed myself in prison. Because I punched someone for no goddamn reason!" He shouted, "But that's what I do, isn't it?" He rhetorically asked; he already knew the answer was yes. "That's what a monster does?"

* * *

Sitting in the passenger seat of her mom's car after the picnic Sara couldn't help but be distracted by her thoughts. She had tried to keep her mind off of Leonard and his sister for the rest of the afternoon, but that wasn't exactly easy when Lisa returned to her station at least three more times asking for more paint. She hadn't seen any more scars on Lisa, but she also didn't miss how Len practically panicked when he finally noticed that his sister had removed her jacket. He'd demanded she put it back on, and then promptly dealt with her tears by saying something that Sara hadn't been able to hear from a distance.

"Honey?" Sara snapped out of her thoughts and looked to her mother, who had clearly been talking this entire time.

"Yeah?" She asked,

"Chicken's ok with you for supper tonight?" Dinah questioned with worry evident in her eyes.

"Yeah, yeah chicken's fine." Sara replied.

"Are you sure you're ok with James coming over?" Dinah asked and now Sara was more interested in the conversation. Her mother's boyfriend was most certainly not the cause for her distance in this conversation and she needed to make that known.

"Mom it's fine," she promised,

"Well you don't seem fine with it," Dinah replied.

"Mom," Sara groaned, "I've just had a long day. I'm tired, I'm covered in paint, I just want to go home and change and I promise I will be a perfect little lady at dinner." She partially mocked.

She had nothing against James; he's a nice guy and good to her mother. But the relationship had just come up so quick after they moved to Central City, especially since Dinah was coming straight out of a divorce, and with it still being so new Sara just wasn't always sure how to act around James. She knew it wouldn't be right to act cold towards him; it wasn't his fault that her parents split up.

"If you're tired do you want me to tell him to find a babysitter for Jefferson?" Dinah asked, referring to James' five-year-old, occasionally overwhelming, son.

"No mom it's fine, I just need to wash up and I'll be fine." Sara assured her mother before she actually thought about the idea. "Besides, I'm Jefferson's babysitter, who would he call?" She asked and Dinah shrugged.

"I think he still has a grandmother in the area." She supplied and Sara nodded.

"Still, I'll be fine, I promise." She said; she wasn't sure about if she could or should tell anyone about her suspicions about Leonard and Lisa just yet. Sure her babysitting course had taught her to immediately call CPS but this isn't some hypothetical situation. This is real life. This is a kid she's supposed to be mentoring and his little sister. So she needs to be sure before she does anything.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ok so yeah, I made Jax five-years-old. He's probably going to be the most drastic age change here. Also I decided to use both JJ and Sarah as twins because in the current timeline John and Lyla have JJ and I have nothing against him but I just miss Sarah, so I decided that this AU could have them both. Also I know they spelt her name Sara but since we have Sara Lance and she wasn't named after her here I'm adding the H to her name so that it doesn't get confusing.


	6. Trust Your Instincts, Or Trust Each Other?

"Hey," Mick looked up from the backpack on his bed when he heard his door open and John's voice behind him.

"Don't worry, I'm just packing up my things and I'll be out of your hair." He assured the older man.

"Really?" John asked, "So what are you doing with the Froot Loops from the cabinet?"

Mick frowned but reached to his side and grabbed the cereal box. He tossed it over to John and the man was well trained enough that he didn't need to break eye contact in order to catch it.

"There, happy?" He asked and John actually smirked.

"You're not going anywhere Mick," he said but of course Mick scoffed at the words. "I mean it." He continued and strangely his voice wasn't loud or scolding, or even angry. Instead it was calm, patient, like he actually wanted Mick to stay.

Nevertheless Mick zipped up his bag and slung it over his shoulder. "You've already made it pretty clear man," he said as he turned to face John, "I'm bad news, for your reputation and your family's."

"Yeah and that wasn't right."

Mick looked at him with confusion written all over his face, he had no idea how to respond to that. There was no way that John could be serious; and yet serious was all that he looked to be.

"Look man," John began, "I was a teenager once-"

"If you're going to start talking about how you were picked on or some other shit to try and relate to me can you please just not?" Mick asked and John chuckled.

"Actually I was pretty popular in high school," he said, "But I was just going to say that I know kids can be assholes, and you at least deserve the chance to explain why you punched that guy."

Yeah, cause an explanation was going to change things. Mick had every intention on not answering John, because it wouldn't matter. The fact didn't change that he punched Nate, that whether or not his foster father gave him a chance wouldn't count for anything when it came to his punishment with Stein. But the silence between him and John didn't get the chance to become noticeable.

"Mick," Lyla called up from the bottom of the stairs, "Someone's here to see you."

Mick looked at John, wondering if he and Lyla had seriously called his caseworker already. But John looked just as confused as he was, he didn't know anything about this.

"Ok," he called, eyeing John skeptically as he let his backpack fall back onto the bed and he moved to leave the bedroom. When he reached the stairs he was able to see his visitor standing at the bottom.

It was Amaya.

"What are you doing here?" He asked wearily as Lyla headed off to check on JJ and Sarah, effectively leaving the two teenagers alone.

"Well I left to go to the bathroom, came back five minutes later and you were gone."

Mick rolled his eyes, she obviously knew why he had disappeared by the time she returned and he wasn't exactly in the mood to play these games with her.

"I meant how did you know where I live?" He questioned more specifically. If Stein hadn't told her about where he had spent the past two years then there was no way she told her where he was currently living.

"Leonard told me," she answered simply and Mick frowned, he'd have to have a talk with Len.

"Ok, so what do you want?" He asked and now, finally, she appeared to be irritated by his cold tone and crossed her arms as she met his fiery glare with one of her own.

"I would  _like_ to know why you punched Nate in the face in the five minutes I was gone."

"Don't worry about it. I'm gonna tell Stein I waited for you to go to the bathroom, that way she can't get on you for not holding my leash." He assured her and while he thought she would be thankful to hear that he was going to at least try salvaging her reputation she actually looked more annoyed than anything.

"You know Mrs. Stein told me you wouldn't tell her why you punched Nate," she said "Can I assume you told your parents or no?"

"They're not my parents," Mick growled and that she did seem surprised to hear but she masked it well after a second or two.

"Ok," she said, not going to question the relationship between the boy and the people he lives with any further. "Then I guess it's safe to assume you didn't tell them?" She asked and apparently his scowl answered the question because she huffed in frustration as she absentmindedly scuffed her foot against the floor. "You know Mick, not everyone is out to get you." She said, or lied would be more like it in Mick's opinion. "Some people actually want to help you, you're only hurting yourself by staying silent." She said in an obvious attempt to get him to talk. Everything in Mick told him not to believe her, no matter how badly he wanted to. He'd heard words like those before, and he had learned that if the person didn't like his answer he would only end up that much deeper into trouble.

"Just go check on your boyfriend," he finally answered but Amaya scoffed at him.

"Nate isn't my boyfriend," she said, "He's a decent guy, but he's only my friend, and so are you."

"I am NOT your friend!" Mick snapped; looking at her so intensely that for a moment she actually looked afraid of him. She recovered quickly enough, but still, that fraction of a second hurt him. "I'm not your friend," he repeated, "Just because Stein decided to pair us up doesn't mean that I like you, I already told you on the first day; I don't want anything to do with you." He said, his voice cold and void of emotion. If he let emotion into his voice than it would betray him. In truth Amaya intrigues him, and that's something that he can't allow, for her sake. John was right. If they were friends, actually friends, he would ruin her reputation.

But when he spoke so coldly to her, he might have expected her to be relieved. Instead she looked angry. Her hands balled into fists and she was quiet for a minute before she forced herself to uncurl them.

"Well you're stuck with me," she reminded him through an almost strained voice. "Whether you like it or not you're stuck with me for the next five months. So if you ever decide you want to talk about today and make things better for yourself, you know where to find me." She said and with that she turned and on her heel and trudged out of the house, all but slamming the door behind her.

* * *

It was late, well passed midnight; in fact it was nearing one in the morning. Dinah was sitting up in her bed and reading a book, though beginning to consider putting it down and turning out her little reading light when a small knock sounded at her open door.

"Mom?" Sara's voice was barely a squeak and even in the dark Dinah could see the tears sparkling in her daughter's eyes. Instantly she put down her book and sat up straighter, concern written all over her face as Sara rushed towards the bed and climbed in over her.

"What is it?" She asked as her daughter curled into her side and cried but didn't speak. She opened her mouth a few times but always clamped it shut, as if embarrassed of whatever was trying to come out. "Is there a monster?" She teased lightly, remembering the days when Sara was practically still a baby and she would be in hysterics over an imaginary creature under her bed.

"I don't know!" The young blonde finally sobbed and that served only to confuse Dinah. Truthfully she had believed that missing her father or sister had brought on this sudden onslaught of tears, it wouldn't be the first time. "You know that kid I mentor? Leonard?" Sara sniffed while wiping at her eyes and Dinah nodded, she had never met the boy but she obviously knows he exists. "I met his sister today, at the picnic." Sara began to explain, "She's five and she wanted me to paint something on her arm. She has a scar, and it looks like a cigarette burn." A louder sob came out and interrupted Sara, "I know, I know that alone doesn't mean anything." She was quick to say while Dinah began to understand what was weighing on her daughters mind, and that this was not going to be as simple as soothing a horror movie induced nightmare. "But Len got so mad when he saw she wasn't wearing her jacket, and I… I don't think I've ever seen him without long sleeves. He never talks about his parents; all he told me is that his mom is dead. He's always the one picking up his sister from school, and I thought maybe his dad was just at work but now I don't know." Sara cut herself off with more tears and all Dinah did for a minute was rub her daughter's back, also at a loss for what to do here.

"Do you understand what you're suspecting, honey?" She finally asked, "This is a serious-"

"I know!" Sara snapped through her tears. "Mom I know! But I don't know what to do. If I say something and I'm wrong then I could ruin their lives. But if I don't say anything and I'm right then… mom what do I do?" She cried and Dinah sighed as she pulled Sara even closer, wracking her brain for an answer.

"Do you really think their father hurts them?" She finally asked.

"I don't know," Sara answered with a sniffle. "I know that a lot of things suddenly make sense if he does." She answered and Dinah nodded.

"Then talk to Clarissa," She advised, she had been a friend with both Mrs. Stein and her husband for years so by force of habit she used the woman's first name. "She has access to Leonard's records, she'll be able to be a better judge of what to do."

"Ok," Sara murmured in agreement as her mother pressed a gentle kiss to the top of her head. "Mom?"

"Yes?"

"Can I sleep in here tonight?"

Dinah smiled at her daughter's request.

"Of course you can," she said and so Sara crawled underneath the blankets of her mother's bed and fell asleep less than ten minutes later, safe, secure, and hoping that she was wrong and this was what Leonard felt when around his father.

* * *

"I just don't understand why you're on his side," Nate practically pleaded from the edge of the mat where he was watching Courtney and Amaya spar. It was early on Sunday morning, but the girls had agreed to the early session in exchange for the previous day off.

"I'm not on his side," Amaya defended as she wrestled against Courtney. "I just think that there are two sides to every story, and considering you won't even tell me what happened, Mick definitely deserves that chance." She explained before she took Courtney down in a roll, effectively ending their Judo match.

Nate rolled his eyes and listened while his grandfather, Amaya and Courtney's coach, lectured all three of them on talking while practicing. Eventually he dismissed the girls and they made their ways over to the side to get their water bottles.

"Amaya, he's bad news. Why can't you see that?" Nate questioned and he waited a minute for Amaya to finish her water before he spoke.

"Look, I'm sorry that he stole Ray's lunch money when you where kids. But don't you think it's time to forgive and forget all that?" She asked as Nate hung his head back and sighed. "You're not seven years old anymore," She finished.

"I'm not mad that he used to steal my cousin's lunch money… or mine." He added that last part as an afterthought before meeting his friend with a serious gaze. "He's dangerous Amaya." He deadpanned and when she looked as though she were about to argue he made sure to cut her off. "Not because he was a playground bully back in elementary school," he assured her, "But… there's no easy way to say this." He warned her when he felt the gravity of what he was trying to warn her against.

"Say what?" She practically laughed but Nate had his mouth pressed into a firm line of discomfort.

"He killed his parents," he finally admitted and at that Amaya's face fell from one of amusement and slight humoring into one of shock and horror. "Burned them alive." Nate confirmed.

"And you're  _sure_ about that?" Amaya asked and Nate sighed.

"Yes," he replied, "Two years ago Mick's house burned to the ground, his parents were listed as victims. Meanwhile he didn't come to school, and at first we thought he had died along with them and the news wasn't releasing his name because he was a minor. But there were never any mentions of a minor being in the fire, and if he was dead the principal would've turned it into some sort of assembly or something." He began explaining, Amaya holding onto his every word. "After awhile some people started claiming they had seen him around, then there were rumors that he got put in Juvie, and we all knew what for."

Amaya nodded when Nate finished, taking a minute to process everything that he had just said before she spoke.

"But are you  _sure_?" She asked again and Nate only looked confused.

"What?" He asked.

"Are you sure?" She repeated, "Rumors spread around school based off of nothing all the time, Iris and Barry are still trying to get it through peoples heads that they never dated." She said, giving him just one of the many prime examples of high school gossip that was abundant in their school.

"Amaya his parents died and he disappeared, now he just shows up two years later? Where else could he have been besides Juvie?" He demanded, honestly unable to believe that even with knowing the truth Amaya was still considering taking Mick's side over his.

"I don't know," she admitted, "But I'll ask him."

"Good luck," Nate found himself scoffing and once he realized what he'd said, and the way Amaya was looking at him, he figured that he might as well come clean. "I asked," he admitted, "I wanted to set the record straight, I didn't want to judge him based on rumors. And what did he do? He punched me in the face." He finished, pointing at his bruised chin, which wasn't going to be clearing up any time soon and had his parents worried beyond all reason.

But Amaya still wasn't willing to take him on his word, despite having known him ever since she moved here a year ago whereas she had only met Mick last week.

"I'll take my chances," she smirked before she was called back to the Judo matt and left Nate to huff to himself in annoyance and absentmindedly rub his aching jaw. He had hated Mick his whole life, but now he REALLY hated him.

* * *

"These are very serious accusations Sara," Mrs. Stein warned the blonde who had unexpectedly shown up at her office on Monday morning.

"I know," Sara promised in practically a whisper of a voice. "But I'm supposed to be Leonard's mentor, I can't just sit back and look away if this is happening to him." She continued in a slightly stronger voice. She had wrestled with her inner conscience all throughout yesterday, weighing her options. Ultimately she knew that her mother was right and she needed to report her suspicions to Mrs. Stein and let her be the judge of what to do.

"You've done the right thing by coming to me," the older woman assured the teen, and just then there was a knock at her door. "That would be Amaya and Mick," she said and Sara cracked a smile as she turned to go.

"Good luck," she wished the counselor who rolled her eyes and watched as Sara left the office and ushered in the next two on her way out.

The two shut the door behind them and Mick went and took the chair while Amaya pulled up the second one, very much like the first day the two of them had met in here just a week ago.

"I want to be very clear," Mrs. Stein began once the two were settled, both of them looking as though they would rather be anywhere but inside this office. "Physical altercations are not tolerated at this school." She deadpanned, "That being said, the community picnic is not directly a school event, nor does it function on the property of the school. So congratulations Mick, you avoid suspension." She congratulated dryly and Mick rolled his eyes uncaringly. "However, you were my responsibility at the time. And Amaya part of your role in this program is to help Mick make smart choices." She scolded and Amaya nodded glumly, clearly disappointed in herself.

"She was in the bathroom," Mick piped up, earning surprised glances from both women. "It's not her fault."

Amaya was shocked. Sure Mick had told her that he would defend her to Mrs. Stein, but she hadn't exactly believed him.

"I never said that it was her fault," Mrs. Stein said, pulling Amaya from her thoughts. "Nevertheless there will be consequences for you both, and I will be letting you know what those are in time. That's all." She said, dismissing them and so the two stood, Amaya put back her seat, and they left.

"This is crap," Mick claimed as they walked out of the guidance office and down the halls of the first floor. "You didn't do anything."

"Well I appreciate that Mick, but that's exactly the problem. I'm supposed to keep you from hitting people." She pointed out, "Anyway, why are you still here? I thought you didn't want anything to do with me?" She asked and that had Mick stopping. Amaya walked a few more steps before she noticed he had stopped and she looked over her shoulder at him.

Only to watch him turn and walk away.


	7. Getting to Know Somebody

A part of Rene, a rather large part in fact, considered telling Felicity that Ronnie just wasn't interested in Caitlin, without ever actually talking to him. He didn't need to mess up that guy's life just because Felicity wanted to get miss goody-two-shoes off her back for five minutes. Hell, he barely knew anything about Caitlin. He knew that, like Ronnie, she was a junior and thus a year younger than himself. He had seen her around, but only after Felicity pointed her out to him. She was a quiet girl, kept mostly to herself and was almost never involved with any of the drama that girls were constantly spreading around the school. In many ways she reminded Rene of a little kid; shy, quiet, and still full of innocence. Ronnie didn't owe her any charity but Felicity was only asking that he convince the football player to say hi to her, so when most of the sports teams reported to the locker room after school Rene found himself walking over to the area where the football players hung out.

"Hey man," he said as he approached Ronnie, who promptly looked over his shoulder in order to see the hockey player.

"Rene, what's up?" He asked and Rene huffed, hoping he wouldn't screw up anybody's life by doing this.

"Not much, but I uh… I got a question for you." He said and Ronnie turned around with concern written all over his face at that.

"Everything ok?" He asked,

"What? Yeah, yeah, everything's cool." Rene quickly assured him, "Look I was just wondering… there's a girl in your grade, Caitlin Snow?" He asked and Ronnie nodded, still looking worried.

"Yeah I know her," He confirmed, "She ok?"

"She's fine," Rene replied, "She's a mentor in that peer advising group or whatever the hell it is. Kid she mentors is a freshman and she's trying to get Caitlin to lighten up or something. I don't know, look she asked me to talk to you and see if you would want to talk to Caitlin." He finally came out and said it, "Nothing big, I'm not asking you to go out with her or anything, not even asking you to hang out with her. All this kid wants is for you to say hi to her or something." He explained and truthfully he wasn't exactly sure how he expected Ronnie to react. Ronnie's a good guy, one of the best in fact, but this situation was just so weird that he half expected the wide receiver to just tell him to beat it.

Still, he was a little surprised when the guy laughed.

"You're kidding right?" He asked, "Dude, I've known Caitlin Snow practically all my life, she has no interest in talking to me."

"Not according to her friend," Rene insisted, "I don't know her that well, but from what I do know she doesn't have much interest in talking to anyone."

"You've got that right," Ronnie agreed and at this point Rene actually wanted him to talk to Felicity's mentor, because clearly the girl's lack of a social life has not been exaggerated.

"Then talk to her," he insisted but the football player still looked skeptical. "Come on just once," he pleaded, "Maybe she's just not good at starting a conversation."

Ronnie pressed his mouth into a firm line, thinking over the idea as coach Garrick called for the football players to report to the field.

"I'll talk to her," he gave in as he shut his locker and met Rene's expectant eyes. "But I can't promise she'll talk back."

* * *

It was very rare that Clarissa Stein, for as scatterbrained and disorganized as she can be, got distracted while cooking dinner. Cooking had always been something that she used to calm herself. It was one of the few things that she could always keep straight, and so Martin knew that when he returned home from teaching at the university and found his wife desperately fanning smoke out of their kitchen with a folder, that something was wrong.

"Clarissa?" He asked as he raced into the kitchen, leaving his briefcase by the door and hurrying to his wife's side. "Clarissa are you alright?"

"Oh, I'm fine." She said as he entered, "Just a little mishap with the casserole."

Martin then, finally, looked at the over and noticed the charred pan that had apparently once been their dinner.

"Where's Lily?" He asked worriedly, hoping that this smoke was the worst of the incident and there had been no flames. Clarissa appeared to be unharmed, but he could not yet say the same for Lily.

"Oh she's fine, she ran out into the backyard and is refusing to come in until the smoke clears up. I told her everything was fine but you know her, never taking any chances." Clarissa explained and only then did Martin look out one of the many windows that his wife had opened in her attempts to clear the smoke from the kitchen, and sure enough their nine-year-old daughter was sitting on the picnic table and watching the smoke clear from the kitchen windows.

"What exactly happened here, if you don't mind my asking?"

"Oh, I was making dinner and trying to look into something for the mentoring program at the same time and I guess I forgot to set the timer on the oven." Clarissa explained, the smoke finally dissipating and so Martin lit a candle in order to aid in abolishing the smell it was leaving behind.

"What were you looking into? Perhaps I can help you?" He offered, he knew all about his wife's peer mentoring program at the high school and had been trying for weeks now to convince her to bring those students on a field trip to the university. She is always looking for something fun to do with them after all.

"Thank you honey, but I don't think so." She politely declined, "One of the students came to me this morning, she believes that her mentee is being abused at home." She admitted sadly but quickly stopped herself when the sliding door could be heard opening up in the next room and not even a minute later Lily walked in.

"Is it safe?" She questioned and both of her parents smiled down at her.

"Yes darling, it's safe to come inside." Clarissa said with an amused smile.

"Lily, why don't you go upstairs and clean up?" Martin asked his daughter, "Then perhaps the three of us can go out for dinner."

"Where are we going?" Lily questioned, the hopeful grin slowly creeping it's way onto her face suggesting that she already had a place in mind.

"We'll decide in the car, now go get ready." Clarissa replied and Lily nodded before she happily hurried past them and went bounding clumsily up the stairs.

Once the sound of his daughter's footfalls had faded away Martin's sweet smile was replaced with a worried frown.

"And what do you think?" He asked Clarissa, "About your student?"

Clarissa sighed before moving past her husband and picking up the folder that she had been reading. She handed it to him with a sigh, allowing him to read the brief history of Leonard Snart.

"I think that this wouldn't be the first time his name was brought to the CPS." She said sadly.

According to the boy's file he had recently been released from a juvenile detention center, and while his crime had been relatively minor his father's hadn't. Apparently his father had once done five years behind bars for the robbery of the Maximillian Emerald, but there was nothing else noted on his son's file about the man's legal history. In fact the only reason that was listed was because right after Lewis's arrest a social worker had investigated Leonard's mother in order to make sure that she was a fit guardian for the boy, and she passed the evaluation. But it was also noted on the file that Mrs. Snart passed away four years ago, meaning that jewel thief Lewis Snart was now the sole guardian of his son.

"I'm going to report it," Clarissa pulled Martin out of his reading and he looked up at her. "It's can't hurt," she reasoned and he nodded, before the sound of Lily barreling down the stairs caught their attention.

"Come on guys, let's go!" The little girl called impatiently and her parents chuckled to themselves.

* * *

When Lyla discovered that she was pregnant two and a half years ago, she and John had joked that by the time their child became a teenager they would be making use of their espionage skills. They hadn't exactly expected that day to come this soon, but the moment that Mick was placed into their custody they knew that it had. Fortunately they had a set of eyes and ears up at the high school, someone who could listen to the gossip, keep silent tabs on Mick, and give them plenty of crap about being over protective and paranoid. This informant was none other than the school's newest English teacher, John's sister-in-law, Carly Diggle. Now Mick knew exactly who Carly was and made sure to do all that he could to avoid her, but that had minimal impact on the amount of rumors that made their way back to her. So after listening in on Mick's conversation with Amaya when she stopped by the house after the picnic, which did not go well, Lyla asked Carly to keep her eyes and ears on what was happening with those two specifically. Carly rolled her eyes and laughed, but agreed, and gave the two teenagers a week to make up before she reported it to her in-laws that they still weren't talking.

"I'm still not too sure about this Lyla," John said as he set the table whilst his wife came through with Sarah balanced on her hip.

"What's not to be sure about Jonny?" She called as she set their daughter down in the playpen with JJ in the living room before returning to the kitchen. "This family using forks and knives?" She teased and John couldn't fight the smirk pulling at his lips.

"It is a change of pace," he mockingly agreed, "But I meant about inviting Amaya over without telling Mick. Just asking for trouble if you ask me."

"Well it's a good thing I didn't ask you then." Lyla said, approaching John and leaning over to kiss him. He smiled against her lips and just as he pulled away the doorbell sounded.

"And I'm guessing that would be our guest?" He teased and Lyla smiled mischievously.

"It would," she said before moving past him to get the door, leaving her husband to think about how this could very well be the thing that convinced Mick to follow through with his constant ideas of running away.

Opening the door Lyla found Amaya standing on the other side and smiled brightly as she brought her into the house.

"Thank you so much for coming over!" The older woman gushed as she pulled the teenager into a friendly hug.

"Thank you for having me," the girl replied just as John entered the doorway.

"Amaya, this is my husband John." Lyla introduced,

"Hello Amaya," John said politely.

"Hello," she returned just as politely.

"And this is Sarah and JJ," Lyla said pointing over at the playpen where the two toddlers were amusing themselves with their toys.

"Hello," Amaya said with a little wave at them, Sarah waved back.

"Mick!" Lyla called as she approached the bottom of the stairs, "Come down for dinner!"

Following her call there was silence and Amaya stood awkwardly in the center of the living room, the tension high and maybe the only person more aware of it than Amaya was John. Finally losing any patients that she had Lyla angled her head back towards the top of the stairs.

"Now Mick!" She bellowed and this time the sounds of footfalls and a door opening rang out.

"Why do I have to come down now?" Mick's irritated voice questioned "I've lived here for almost a month and dinner has-" Whatever he was about to say as he made his way down the stairs died on his lips when his eyes landed on Amaya. She was staring at him anxiously, expectantly, waiting for him to say something.

"What's she doing here?" He finally settled on and she frowned, along with Lyla and John.

"Mick," John said his name in a warning tone.

"What?" Mick questioned,

"I can go," Amaya offered, sensing that an argument was getting close to exploding out.

"Yes," Mick said,

"No," Lyla chorused and Mick gave her glare in response, which she of course returned with greater ferocity. "No," she said again, moving her eyes off of Mick and resting them on Amaya, her gaze now softened. "No we invited you here to have dinner, there's no reason for Mick's attitude to ruin that."

"Then I'll eat later," Mick said, turning to head back up the stairs to his room.

"Hold it," John stopped him, "You've been part of this family for almost a month, it's time you started taking part in family dinner."

Mick growled under his breath at the words but didn't say or do anything to try and argue with them, mostly because he knew that he was outnumbered. Seeing that her foster son was going to give in Lyla moved over to the playpen and lifted JJ out, John right behind her to get Sarah.

"Come on," she said, turning back to the teenagers. "Dinner's in here."

Amaya and Mick glanced uneasily at each other, both contemplating the idea of turning tail and running before they instead followed the adults into the kitchen.

The table was set up with six places, although two of them weren't places so much as they were high chair trays. The two teens pulled out their chairs; right next to each other because clearly John and Lyla like to watch two teenagers squirm in discomfort while sitting next to each other. Dinner at first was quiet, nothing but the sounds of forks hitting plates sounding as everyone waited for someone to say something.

"So Amaya?" John finally started, "Are you in any other clubs at school besides peer mentoring?"

"The history club," Amaya answered quickly, "But I've had to miss the last few meetings because of training."

"Training for what?" John asked and Lyla smirked at her husband.

"We didn't invite her over to interrogate her, Jonny." She teased,

"Then why did you invite her over?" Mick all but snapped and Lyla's eyes showed that she very well could only be a few seconds away from losing any and all patients she had with the boy. So, although she was unsure as to why, Amaya stepped in.

"It's ok," she said, acting like she hadn't even heard Mick, "I'm in training for Judo in the Junior Olympics."

At that announcement Lyla's eyes widened and John nearly choked on his soda, while Mick found himself staring at the girl next to him in shock. Why was it that every time she revealed something about herself it just added to the mystery of her?

"Wow," Lyla finally said, "That's exciting."

Amaya smiled shyly and nodded before taking another bite of her macaroni.

"Isn't that coming up soon?" John asked, he could've sworn that he had heard something about the Junior Olympics recently.

"The end of April," Amaya answered the question with a nod and a hand over her mouth to hid the chewed bits of food still there. "It's in Star City this year, so we'll be going out there."

"Are your parents driving or are you guys taking the train?" Lyla asked and Amaya glanced down at her lap with an embarrassed blush.

"Driving but… sorry, when I said  _we_  I meant my team and I. I was recruited for the team from my village in West Africa, my mother still lives there and can't make the trip out here." She awkwardly admitted and still Mick found himself staring. He also found himself thinking back to the nurse's office when she said that her mother told her not to focus on what she was leaving behind in Zambesi, he had never considered that one of the things she left behind was her mother.

"Well I'm sure she's very proud of you," it was John who finally broke the silence and Amaya beamed at him.

"She is, she makes sure to tell me in every letter that she sends."

After that dinner went on mostly quietly, though with a fair amount of chatter. Amaya left right afterwards and Mick, well try as he might to want nothing to do with her he went to bed that night thinking about how such an ambition was failing spectacularly.


	8. Watch Your Own Back (or Don't)

"Lisa?"

Lisa looked up at the sound of her name, the school day hadn't even begun and already her teacher was hovering over her shoulder for some unknown reason.

"What?" She asked and Mrs. Carlisle smiled while she crouched down to her level, thus preventing the other children at the table from hearing anything she would say.

"Can you come out in the hall with me for a moment?" She whispered and Lisa promptly felt her heart turn heavy as stone and drop into her stomach.

"Am I in trouble?" She asked quietly and Mrs. Carlisle shook her head.

"No sweetie, you're not in trouble. I just need you to come with me." She explained and so it was with a small nod that Lisa slid off her chair, Mrs. Carlisle standing straight and leading her away from the table where all eyes were now following them.

Out in the hallway there was another woman. The woman was very young and she had short brown air and fare skin, plus a very friendly smile that made her seem not quite so much like a teacher to Lisa, but since she was obviously older than Lenny she wasn't a kid either.

"Lisa, this is Ms. Park." Mrs. Carlisle explained, "You're going to be joining her in her office this morning."

"Hi Lisa," Ms. Park practically cooed at her.

"Hi," Lisa barely whispered in response.

"Don't worry, I'll have you back to your class as soon as I can. I'm talking to all the kids sooner or later." She promised when she sensed Lisa's obvious discomfort.

Lisa perked up just a little at her words and took a step towards her, earning a bright smile for her action.

Mrs. Carlisle then turned back into the classroom and before Lisa knew it she was following Ms. Park down the kindergarten hallway and around the corner.

"You're not missing anything too fun in class because of this, are you?" Ms. Park questioned as the two of them walked down the halls of the school; Lisa shook her head.

"No," she squeaked, "Just work-board." She replied, referring to the rather large poster board in the classroom where Mrs. Carlisle had the workstations and whom would be working at which listed out.

"You don't like work-board?" Ms. Park asked and Lisa shrugged.

"I like the block station," she offered, "But I go there last today and I never get there when I have it last, I never get to the last station. I don't finish the others in time." She explained and Ms. Park frowned sympathetically before a smile replaced the expression.

"Well I don't have any blocks in my office, but do you like to color?" She asked and Lisa's face lite up in an excited smile.

"Uh-huh," she replied as they came to stop at a door she had seen many times before but, like now, it was always closed.

"Well then, since I'm taking you away from work-board you can color while we talk, how does that sound?" Ms. Park questioned but the exuberance on Lisa's face made the answer rather obvious.

"Ok!" The little girl cheered and Ms. Park chuckled to herself as she opened the mystery door.

Inside was a room no bigger than a closet. It was brightly lit and contained a teacher's desk and two student chairs on the opposite side. The walls were decorated with various drawings in crayon and marker taped up everywhere and stuffed animals and children's books overran the shelves behind the desk.

"You can take a seat Lisa," Ms. Park said as she began rummaging around in one of her desk drawers, eventually pulling out a few pieces of paper and a box of crayons. She set them in front of her young guest before taking her seat, smiling as Lisa began scribbling yellow squiggles onto one of the papers. "Ok," she said, "Now I'm guessing Mrs. Carlisle didn't tell you until this morning that you would be coming with me?" She asked and Lisa shook her head.

"Nope," she answered.

"Well I'm Ms. Park, I'm one of the counselors here and I try to meet with each of the kids by the end of the school year, just say hello and make sure everything is going alright." She explained and Lisa nodded, but otherwise was focused on her artwork. "So you're in kindergarten, do you like it here?" She asked and again Lisa nodded.

"Yeah," she answered.

"Good," Ms. Park replied, "Are you friends with any of the kids in your class?"

"Uh-huh," Lisa said but gave no indication that she was going to continue.

"Do you have a best friend?" Ms. Park asked but Lisa only shrugged.

"Not really," she answered uncaringly, "But I play with Carrie a lot." She added that as an after thought.

"Ok, what's your family like?" Ms. Park asked.

"It's me, and my daddy, and my big brother Lenny." Lisa replied and Ms. Park nodded.

"Do you mind if I ask you where your mommy is?" She asked and at that Lisa looked up from her drawing.

"She's um… she's in heaven." She supplied uncomfortably, "I think," she quickly added. "Lenny says that she died when I was one, and that she's looking down on us. Carrie says dead people do that from this big place in the sky called heaven."

"I'm sorry to hear that Lisa," Ms. Park sympathized, "Do you know how your mommy died?"

Lisa shook her head mutely and Ms. Park nodded.

"That's ok," she assured her, "The important thing is that she's watching over you."

Lisa nodded but made no motion to reclaim her crayon, in fact she had begun sitting on her hands and Ms. Park knew that they needed to get off the topic of the girl's dead mother if she were ever going to get her to talk.

"What about your brother?" She asked, she had noticed how Lisa had seemed rather excited when she mentioned his name. "How hold is he?"

"He's fourteen," the little girl answered and Ms. Park smiled at the success.

"Is he annoying?" She asked and at the question that has most kids nodding vigorously Lisa began shaking her head to and fro. "No?" She asked, amused by the unspoken answer, and now Lisa seemed to think on it.

"Well sometimes," she decided on, "I missed him when he was gone though."

"Gone?" Ms. Park asked as her brows knitted together, "Where was he?"

"In jail," Lisa answered simply, as though that were the most common thing in the world. But she must have noticed the quizzical expression on Ms. Park's face because she explained it further. "He stole something so he had to go to jail, he's back now."

"Mmhm," Ms. Park hummed, scribbling a note down in her notebook. "So while he was in jail, was it just you and your dad at home?" She asked and with a sudden frown Lisa nodded. "Did you like that?" Ms. Park asked, though if Lisa's sudden change in energy was anything to go by she knew the answer already. Sure enough the little girl shook her head. "Why not?" She asked and Lisa shrugged, not saying anything. "Lisa," she pleaded, just barely getting the child to look up at her. "You can tell me," she promised with a sweet smile and so Lisa exhaled the breath she had apparently been holding.

"Daddy gets mad a lot," she mumbled lowly, all but sucking on her thumb as soon as the words were out.

"Ok, what happens when daddy gets mad?" Ms. Park asked and again Lisa shrugged at the question, although this time she seemed to care very much about it.

"Lot's of stuff," she answered.

"Like what?"

Another shrug.

"Sometimes he throws things," the little girl answered after a minute of quiet. "Sometimes he just hits us, but only cause we make him mad. He doesn't want us to do that." She trailed off and Ms. Park nodded, scribbling down a few notes before she went on with their conversation.

* * *

"Hey,"

Caitlin snapped her head up in attention when she heard the greeting directed towards her. Presently she was waiting for chemistry to end and had her nose buried in a book, or at least she did until the voice of the boy in front of her sliced through her little fantasy world.

The odd thing is, the boy in front of her was none other than Ronnie Raymond.

She turned to look behind her, almost sure that he was talking to whoever was sitting there. But of course there wasn't anybody there and only an empty desk greeted her.

"Good book?" Ronnie asked just as she turned back to him, panic overtaking her body as he watched her and waited for her to respond.

"Uh… no." She finally stammered out, and internally cursed herself. The book was good; actually this had to be probably her fourth time reading it. But telling him no would kill any further conversation that might be coming, thus killing any future chance of him humiliating her however he's so clearly planning to.

"Bummer," he said awkwardly and she nodded, giving the clock a sideways glance as though she were trying to command the bell to ring. "Are you reading it for a class?"

"What?" Caitlin asked; she had been a little too preoccupied with her thoughts to process his words.

"If it's not a good book, why are you reading it?"

"Oh…Uh," Caitlin stuttered and just then the bell finally rang, "I've got to go, next class is all the way across school, bye!" She said hurriedly as she dropped her book into her backpack and stood up.

She barely had the backpack slung over her shoulder as she sped out of the classroom and down the hall. Her class wasn't really on the other side of the school, but it couldn't hurt to get there as quickly as possible and avoid any further humiliation.

* * *

Unlike Lisa, Leonard wasn't naïve enough to believe that the schools counselors were simply checking in with each kid, and nor was the counselor in question going to pretend that he was. Dr. Wells, the school adjustment counselor, had taken Leonard out of his study hall and dragged him down to the office in the very corner of the guidance section; claiming that he was asked by Mrs. Stein to do this.

"Why didn't Mrs. Stein just torture me herself?" He asked and Wells chucked.

"Conflict of interest," he replied and Len raised an eyebrow. "You're involved with her program, and anyway Mrs. Stein technically isn't an adjustment counselor, so her doing this wouldn't be recognized by the state and you'd have to do it all over again with me." He further explained and Len huffed, but didn't relax into his stiff folding chair just yet.

"Do what?" He asked skeptically.

"You were just released from Juvenile Detention almost two months ago, so it's time that someone check in with you about the reintegration with society." Wells explained and again Len huffed.

"I thought you said that Stein put you up to this?" He asked,

"She did," Wells replied without missing a beat, "You were going to be sent to do this outside of school with a state worker, but Mrs. Stein thought that this might be more convenient."

"And the state approved it?" Len asked with even more skepticism than before, to which Wells chuckled.

"You don't trust easily, do you?"

"Like you said, I've been in prison." Len deadpanned, "Trust isn't exactly blind in there."

"That is a fair point," Wells said, obviously humoring him. "I report to the state department, and they ratify the results of this session. Basically instead of taking out the middle man we're adding one in." He explained and Len nodded, that made sense. "Ok," Wells said when he saw that Leonard was, for now, finished asking questions. "Let's begin."

* * *

As the final bell rang and signaled the end of the school day Amaya went straight for her locker to put away the books she wasn't going to need for homework and pick up any that she would. The entire walk there she could feel Mick trailing behind her, but she assumed that he would eventually break off and head to wherever it was that he was planning on causing trouble. She didn't expect him to follow her all the way to her locker, nor did she expect the harsh way in which he leaned himself against the neighboring one.

"What's your angle?" He demanded and she glanced sideways at him before returning to her task.

"Excuse me?" She asked,

"I know honor society kids have to do a lot of community service or extra curriculars," He admitted, a little surprised when she didn't comment on his understanding of the word "curricular". "I asked around; you're in the history club, junior Olympics, you volunteer at the goddamn hospital, and your third period class is student assisting in the office!" He exclaimed just as she shut her locker with a sigh.

"Is this going somewhere?" She asked in a bored voice and finally turned to face him, "I'm going to miss my bus."

"You don't need the mentor program, you're already doing plenty to stay on the honors society." He said but she only rolled her eyes.

"Like I said Mick, not everyone is out to get you." She said before walking past him. To be perfectly honest she was partially expecting him to follow her, but alas when she reached her bus she was alone. Save for Nate who was waiting for her in his usual seat across from hers.

With how much he hates Mick, she definitely wasn't going to be telling him about what had just happened.


	9. Time For A Change

By the start of school on Thursday Caitlin had put the previous day's incident with Ronnie out of her mind. She went to her locker first thing upon arriving at school, every intention set on leaving behind her jacket and picking up a few textbooks, but she barely had the combination in when Ronnie came up beside her.

"Hey," he greeted with a friendly smile and Caitlin, looking oh so much like a deer in the headlights, only stared back frozen before him.

"Uh… hi," she finally got out before her brain kicked back into function and she opened the door of her locker.

"Look I uh, I never got the chance yesterday to ask you if you might want to go out sometime?" He said and again Caitlin froze. Had he just… what? Ronnie was not the type of person who hung out with someone like her. He's popular, athletic, and cute, he could easily date any girl that he wanted. Obviously what he was proposing was strictly friendship; it had to be. But even that was something that people like Caitlin Snow don't get from people like Ronnie Raymond. "Or just… you know, hang out as friends if you'd rather that?" He asked as though he could read her mind.

_"This… this has to be a trap."_ Caitlin thought to herself. Yeah, that was it. This was a trap, a set up for a joke. He was planning something and this was the start. He was going to make a laughing stock of her, she may not know how but that didn't mean she would fall for it, even if she's never known Ronnie to be that type.

"I uh… I don't think so." She finally answered, quickly shutting her locker despite the fact that her much needed books were still inside. "I'm really busy after school, tutoring and stuff. I'm sorry." She said and if she didn't know any better she almost would've said that Ronnie looked disappointed by the rejection. Almost like it was killing him as much as it was her.

"Oh, ok." He said and she smiled awkwardly at him.

"I'll see you around," she promised before speed walking off, her mind racing as she tried to determine what she could have possibly done to make Ronnie Raymond want to make a fool out of her.

* * *

"I just don't understand why, even knowing what he did to his family, she still mentors him." Nate vented as he and Ray walked around the hallways of the school before homeroom. "I mean, she's got to be able to get out of it if he's a danger to her."

"Well, to be fair, we still don't know for sure if he actually started that fire." Ray said and Nate looked at his younger cousin with a deadpan expression. "What?"

"Why is everybody siding with the junior serial killer?" He demanded exasperatedly.

"Ok first of all, you need three kills to be considered a serial killer." Ray corrected his cousin, "Second, why are you so against him?"

"Are you forgetting that we're talking about the guy who spent most of elementary and middle school putting you in a headlock?" Nate replied immediately and Ray gave an amused grin at the answer.

"I believe that people can change, and Amaya is helping him change." He said, ever the optimist. "Besides, the mentoring programing is just for honor society credit. You don't need to be jealous."

"I'm not jealous," Nate scoffed and Ray outright laughed.

"Ok," he scoffed.

"I'm not!" Nate insisted and again Ray laughed.

They walked in silence for a minute, the conversation virtually dead.

"But if I were…" Nate finally picked up and Ray snickered, "You don't think she actually likes Mick, do you?"

"As more than a friend?" Ray asked, "Nah, probably not."

"Are you sure?" Nate questioned; as much as he didn't want to admit it, he was a little worried that Amaya might be developing a crush on Mick.

"Dude, who's been the one helping Amaya with everything since the day that she moved here?" He asked and Nate sighed, unconvinced that such a thing mattered.

"Me but-"

"But nothing," Ray interrupted, "You're the one went with grandpa to the airport to pick her up when she first got here. You're the one who helped her move in, who showed her around school, who helped her catch up on American history. You're the one helping her prepare for her citizenship test once you guys graduate. You are the one who has always been there for her." He reminded and Nate conceded to that point, though he didn't feel all the reassured.

"True," he admitted, "But I don't think 'I saw her first' is going to mean much to Mick."

"It doesn't have to," Ray insisted. "Amaya likes you; she was practically attached to your hip the first few weeks that she was here. Just keep being yourself." He advised just as the bell rang for homeroom.

"Alright," Nate agreed before he and his cousin would have to split off for the morning. "But if Mick tries anything funny, he's going down."

"Just stay out of trouble," Ray warned, only partially joking, before he headed down the staircase and left Nate to go on his own way.

* * *

English was one of the few classes that Mick actually felt the motivation to show up, however that was really only because both Leonard and Felicity were there to suffer with him. When he arrived the two of them were already seated and Felicity was blabbering about something while Len nodded along. That much was typical, although today Felicity was speaking with a fiery look of outrage in her eyes; that can't be good.

"What's Drusilla going on about?" He grumbled as he took his seat in front of Len and turned sideways as so to look at Felicity.

"Caitlin!" The goth exclaimed, not the least bit put off by the nickname. "She's literally had a crush on Ronnie Raymond for like ever and today he actually asked her out, which I knew he was going to talk to her but I didn't think he'd do THAT, and she turned him down! Who does that?" She questioned, "Who says no to the guy she's had a thing for, for almost ten years? Why? Why would someone do something like that?"

"Well maybe she just doesn't like him that way anymore," Len suggested but Felicity shook her head.

"No, she does, she basically told me." She insisted which earned an eye-roll from both her friends.

"She basically told you?" Len asked skeptically.

"So when I asked her she said she thought he was probably trying to embarrass her or something. Who thinks like that?" She demanded, completely ignoring Len. "Where on earth would you get the idea that someone was trying to make a fool out of you, from them asking you out?" She continued to rant, "Seriously, what makes a person that paranoid?"

She continued after that, but Mick had stopped listening. Her last question had his heart sinking slowly into his stomach as some of his past sins came back to him.

He saw the time he pushed Caitlin off the playground in kindergarten.

The time he tripped her on her way to her seat.

The time he stuck his chewed gum into her hair and she had to get her long hair chopped off to her ears.

He remembered all the names that he used to call her. When they were still very young and in there first few years of elementary school the were simple names, such as but not limited to; Einstein, show off, and after the time he stood next to her in the gym class circle and had to hold her icy hand, Cold Caity.

Cold Caity was a name that stuck with her. As the smallest and shyest girl in school she had been a favorite target for bullies other than him, but the others all latched onto that nickname. It stuck until the left elementary school and when he realized that nobody cared once they got to middle school he dropped the nickname, swapping it out for some more advanced tactics.

He looked through her backpack one day whilst she was in the bathroom until he found something that could be of use to him; her  _about me_  essay meant only for the eyes of their English teacher. After that he let it slip around school that her parents had recently divorced, or rather her dad left, and she blamed herself. He thought back to that year now, the things he could remember hearing in the hallways, the things that he himself said to her.

_"When's your dad coming back Caity?"_

_"Why weren't you at the father daughter dance Caity?"_

_"Wonder what she did,"_

_"Daddies want pretty little girls, he's probably embarrassed by her."_

He had never meant for it to get so out of hand, but he never exactly did anything to put a stop to it either.

"I can think of something," he finally answered Felicity, who was still yammering but abruptly shut her mouth when he spoke.

"Alright class," the teacher's voice cut in from the background, signaling the beginning of class.

"I'll talk to her," Mick promised before proceeding to do something that was even more out of character for him than offering to help Caitlin, he turned around and began paying attention to the lesson.

* * *

Sara was trying to focus on her algebra notes, she really was, but she had been a nervous wreck ever since her talk with Mrs. Stein earlier in the week. She had barely talked to Leonard, because they really do barely talk outside of meetings, so she had no idea if anything had come of it or not. When she saw Len in the hallways he didn't run to avoid her, or make an effort to not look at her as though he knew what she had done, so maybe nothing had come of it. Of course if something had he most likely wouldn't know she was the one to report his sister's odd scars and suspicions of his own behavior. But he's a smart kid, she wouldn't put it past his skill level to figure out that she had seen Lisa's scars at the picnic and reported the theory of abuse. She had done some research into social services, though she was careful to keep such information strictly to herself, and had learned that on average they began investigations between 24 and 72 hours of the tip coming in. They are also required to investigate every tip to some extent. So she knew that something could be happening any day now if it hadn't already, she just hoped that it had and came back as nothing.

* * *

At the end of the day Mick found Caitlin at her locker. He hesitated a moment before approaching, swallowing his pride and having this conversation was turning out to be much easier said than done. But he was the one who made this mess, mostly, so he needed to be the one to clean it up. She saw him coming as he approached her, he saw the fear flicker through her eyes as she quickened the pace at which she was stuffing books into her bag and pulling on her coat. He felt a twinge of guilt in his chest for the fear she so clearly felt towards him, but that was what he was here to hopefully fix.

"I'm sorry," he blurted out the instant that he reached her, not bothering with a greeting or any awkward small talk.

Caitlin stared at him wide eyed for a moment. From his tone she knew exactly what he was apologizing for but just couldn't believe it.

"What?" She finally stuttered out.

"I'm sorry," he repeated, "For everything I did to you. The gum in your hair, pushing you down the muddy hill behind the school, calling you names, stealing your teddy bear out of your cubby in kindergarten-"

"That was you?" She interrupted but he went on as though she hadn't said anything.

"Tripping you, and the rumors I spread about your dad." He finished and she avoided his eyes for a minute, taking in all that he had just said.

"Thank you," she finally said.

"You're welcome, now you need to go find that football guy and agree to go out with him." He ordered her and the incredulous look she fixed him with contained more defiance than he had thought her capable of expressing.

"What?" She demanded, "Are you insane?!"

"He likes you!" Mick exclaimed,

"He wants to humiliate me!" She argued, "I'm not stupid, I know that Felicity put him up to asking me out-"

"Felicity asked him to say hi to you! HE decided to ask you out!" Mick insisted but Caitlin wasn't having any of it.

"Then congrats to him, he's going beyond what she asked of him, to make an even bigger fool out of me!" She practically shouted before fixing him with an icy glare. "No thank you," she said coldly before shutting her locker and walking away, but Mick wasn't about to let her get away so easily.

"Caitlin!" He called, marching after her but she refused to slow down. "Caitlin! Caity!"

"DON'T call me that." She demanded, spinning around in the middle of the hallway before she pulled herself over to the side and Mick did the same. "I appreciate your apology Mick, I really do, it means a lot. But it doesn't change what you did, or what other people did with it. Most of the girls who spread it around school were my friends, but instead of defending me they made everything worse!" She exclaimed, hot tears welling up in her eyes as she thought back to the living hell that had been middle school. "You ruined my life Mick, but so did plenty of other people."

"You know not everyone is out to get you," he found himself saying, "I'm sorry for what I did to you, and I'm sorry that other people weren't much better. But Ronnie was never a part of it. We've both known him since the third grade, he would never hurt anyone." He insisted and finally Caitlin appeared to be considering the possibility that Ronnie actually likes her.

"But why me?" She all but whispered, "I never talk, I don't wear make-up, I don't dress like other girls. I'm not pretty, I'm not athletic, I'm-"

"God I really screwed you up didn't I?" Mick interrupted and Caitlin glared at him, to which he gave an exasperated sigh. "Look, just because someone who you wouldn't expect to give you the time of day decides they want to hang out with you, it doesn't mean that they're using you." He said, "Maybe they see something that you don't, maybe you spend too much time in your head, or maybe you spend too much time living in the past. But you can't go through life thinking everyone who talks to you is trying to stab you in the back. What kind of a person-" He cut himself off, realization dawning on him that this was no longer strictly about Caitlin.

"Mick?" Caitlin asked and he shook his head, bringing himself back to the conversation just slightly.

"Just… talk to Ronnie, I've gotta go." He said before hurrying off, the gears in his brain turning and trying to think of a way to make right all the things he had said to Amaya recently.

* * *

When Leonard and Lisa arrived home after school they found their father in the kitchen and staring at a piece of paper. Now that much was normal, he usually laid out his heist plans over the counter, or at least the parts that he bothered to write down. But something was off this time, the anger in his eyes and the way that he looked up furiously the instant the two of them entered was proof of that.

"You ungrateful little brats," he snarled lowly before he stalked towards him. He made to grab Lisa by the arm but she ducked behind Len and Lewis instead settled for clutching his son's throat.

"Which one of you was it? Huh?" He demanded; tightening his grip on Len's neck and Len in turn trying to bite back the choked gasp caught in his collapsing throat. "WHICH ONE OF YOU WAS IT?" Lewis roared and when he didn't get an answer he slammed Len hard against a wall, ignoring how his sons head scraped harshly against the edge of the cabinet when he did.

"DON'T YOU IDIOTS KNOW WHAT'S AT STAKE FOR YOU?" He bellowed and in the background there was a knock on the door that went unnoticed by all but the whimpering Lisa, who scrambled away to answer it. "YOU THINK THIS IS HELL BOY?" Lewis roared at his son before he lowered his voice almost a frightening amount. "You don't know hell," he promised with a sadistic grin, before screaming once again. "IF THEY TAKE YOU AWAY, THEN YOU'LL KNOW WHAT REAL HELL IS! YOU'LL-"

Leonard, who was blacking out by now, barely even realized that his dad had been cut off. In fact, only when his lungs finally filled did he realize that he was no longer pinned to the wall, but sitting on the ground. He felt something on his arm and looked down at it. Through his very fuzzy vision he could see the outline of a small shape and soon recognized it as Lisa, her little arms wormed tightly around his. He registered screaming somewhere in the background, no longer right in his ear. As his vision returned to normal he looked around and saw a man wearing a suit. The man was talking to someone, but Leonard couldn't see them from his angle. But still, the sight of the man in the suit mixed with his father's words and the memories of the odd questioning the other day that Lisa claimed she also endured made everything click for the teenager.

Someone had somehow discovered Lewis's less than nurturing approach to parenting.


	10. Doorways

The next few hours were mostly a blur for Leonard. The man in the suit, Agent Nelson apparently, gave him and Lisa ten minutes to pack whatever they could fit into their backpacks before they would have to leave with him. Lisa, understandably, was a sobbing mess and Len was only going through the motions as he carried her upstairs with her school backpack, snagging his own with one of his few fingers that was left semi-free. Once upstairs he tried to calm his sister and managed enough as so to convince her to pack. Immediately she began stuffing as many toys in her bag as she could fit, and he certainly wasn't going to try arguing with her to take clothes. Luckily he had left the majority of his school supplies in his locker, leaving his backpack relatively empty. He grabbed an old t-shirt and a pair of pants for pajamas, one extra set of jeans, underwear, socks, and another shirt, before he moved back to Lisa's room. She was still sobbing and cramming a stuffed seal with a missing eye into her bag, looking up at him when he entered. He went right for her dresser and began putting her clothes into his bag, folding them up as small as he could as so to fit as many as possible.

"Two minutes kids!" Agent Nelson's voice shouted from downstairs and Leonard bit back a curse, he had wasted far too much of their time fighting the losing battle of calming Lisa.

He scanned her room for anything else that she may need, and quickly grabbed her hairbrush along with a few ties. He then left for the bathroom and took both their toothbrushes as well as the tube of toothpaste.

"One minute!"

This time the curse slipped past Leonard's lips since Lisa was nowhere in hearing range.

"We're coming!" He called back down to the man he had by now deduced must be some type of social worker. Hurrying back into Lisa's room he shoved the toothbrushes and toothpaste into his bag before just barely managing to close it. He then turned to Lisa, who was now in hysterics over not being able to cram the little owl she had won in a school raffle into her small backpack so long as the half blind seal was inside.

Pushing her flailing hands away from the bag he zipped it closed and when she only cried louder he clasped his hand gently around hers.

"You can carry the owl," he promised before zipping up the jacket she had never taken off.

He then did the same to himself before stepping back and loading his now very heavy backpack onto his shoulder. When he noticed that Lisa was still much too caught up in her tears he guided her through putting on her own backpack and then grabbed her hand, as there was no way that he could carry her with his bag weighing him down.

"Come on," he instructed her gently as he pulled her along and made sure to turn out her light on the way.

At the bottom of the stairs Agent Nelson was waiting for them, and once outside he loaded their bags into the trunk of his car and while he offered Leonard the passenger seat the teenager declined. He instead sat in the back, his sister strapped in next to him but still curled into his side as best as she could. He wanted to cry too, but he couldn't. Not now. Right now all he could do was tell Lisa that they were going to be ok.

Even if he wasn't too sure they would be.

* * *

Caitlin, having to stay after for a yearbook meeting anyway, waited on the floor of the hallway near the gym for the football team to finish practice. More than once the thought crossed her mind to leave, and more than once she stood up to do so. She walked two laps around the first floor but could never quite bring herself to leave the building. She had already done all of her homework and returned her chemistry textbook to her locker. Her stomach was flipping nervously over itself as her instincts screamed at her to leave before anyone could see her. But she kept reminding herself that this would be a good thing, that Ronnie isn't looking to hurt her, and that he simply sees something in her.

No matter how illogical that may sound.

It was then that the sound of the gym doors opening snapped her out of her thoughts and she looked up to see the two boys from the football team filing out. Right behind them was another and so Caitlin began gathering up her things, hoping to not look as though she had been sitting there waiting for the past two hours. But that isn't really a realistic goal and in hindsight the fact that she was just standing there against the wall across from the door when Ronnie came out probably only made it look more like she had been waiting for him.

"Caitlin?" He asked when he saw her and she smiled nervously, the sirens in her head blaring louder than ever but she ignored them.

"Hi, um… I uh… I wanted to apologize for earlier. You caught me off guard and I didn't know what to say and I was just wondering… would you still want to go out sometime?" She stuttered out nervously and, to her surprise, Ronnie smiled at her.

"Tomorrow night work?" He asked and suddenly Caitlin felt a rush of relief flooding the blood in her veins.

"Yeah," she agreed, "Tomorrow's perfect."

"Cool, I'll pick you up around seven? You still live at the same house you did back in elementary school?" He asked,

"Yeah, same place. See you at seven." She said and with a nod and a smile he left.

Caitlin stood there until he was gone, and the moment he turned the corner she turned on her heel and ran out the door of the school. She ran all the way to her car, euphoria overtaking her entire body as she wondered why she had ever been so afraid of this. She has a date tomorrow night, an actual date with Ronnie Raymond.

* * *

Upon arriving at the police station, Leonard and Lisa followed behind Agent Nelson who eventually brought them into what looked like it might be a break room for the police. It was small, practically a closet. There was a coffee maker and water cooler, as well as a mini fridge and a few desk chairs with no desks. There was also a ratty old couch that looked to be a relic of more than a few decades ago.

"We'll find a place for the two of you to spend the night while we get everything sorted out with your father, someone will stop by tomorrow afternoon to tell you about that and what will be next for you." Agent Nelson explained; sadness written all over his face that told he knew how scared they were, or at least how scared Lisa was, and that he was sorry he didn't have more answers for them.

It hardly did anything to comfort Leonard.

"I don't know if you drink coffee," the older man went on, his eyes directed at Len. "But feel free to help yourself to some. There's water over there and not much in the fridge besides chicken salad, but if you want any of that go for it." He continued before his eyes shifted down to Lisa, who was gripping tightly to her older brother's hand and quite literally shaking with fear. He bent down to her height with a friendly smile, "You know, one of my friends out in the office keeps a jar of lollypops on his desk, would you like me to go get one for you?" He offered and Lisa nodded timidly.

Agent Nelson then rose to his feet and left the small room with the promise that he would be right back.

Once he was gone Leonard pulled Lisa along with him as he made his way over to the couch. He set down his backpack before guiding her out hers. He then sat down and pulled her into his lap, rocking her back and forth and biting back a groan when her tears started up again.

"What's, what's going to happen to, to daddy?" She stuttered and Len sighed, not entirely sure how to explain to Lisa that there was a very good chance they may never see their father again or how she would take it. "He's gonna be mad at me," she murmured softly, so soft that Len barely heard her. "I let them in." She went on, "They asked if he was home, and he was hurting you, I… I didn't… I didn't kno, know they- they wou- wou- w-" she cut herself off with a loud sob as Len tightened his hold on her and ran one hand along her back. She tucked her head as deep into his chest as she could manage as she cried, knowing that she was safe to do so.

"You did the right thing," he whispered to her, although he wasn't all that sure she even heard him over her tears.

But she must have, because she also heard the sound when the door opened and looked up, halting her tears as quickly as she could just in case the visitor was their father.

But it wasn't.

It was Agent Nelson, two lollypops clutched in his wrinkly old hand and a sorry expression on his face. But he still managed a smile as he stepped into the room and approached the siblings, placing the pieces of candy down next to Len's leg and just looking at the two of them for a moment.

"There were two numbers left on the report for us to contact, people in your lives who are willing to let you stay with them until we get this sorted out. There was no answer at the first number, there was on the second. Your friend Sara and her mother, they're coming down to get the two of you. You'll stay with them for a day or two until we get your situation sorted out." He explained before leaving again and Len hardly noticed that Lisa was merely sniffling at this point. In fact, he hardly noticed anything after Agent Nelson told them who was coming for them.

Somehow it didn't entirely surprise him that Sara Lance was the one who tipped off the CPS; he'd been suspicious ever since the picnic that she had seen one or more of Lisa's scars. He didn't need to ask about the second number on that form, he knew the only person that it could be was Mrs. Stein. He was mostly dumbfounded that either of them, never mind both of them, were willing to deal with both him and Lisa overnight if it meant keeping them away from Lewis.

He was returned to reality when he noticed Lisa leaning over his arms to grab one of the lollypops, unwrapping it and sticking it into her mouth before pulling it out again.

"I like Sara," she stated, the only evidence of her previous meltdown being in her red eyes, but not her voice. "She's nice." She continued and Len hummed in agreement, but didn't say anything.

* * *

Felicity may not look like your typical high school gossip, but Mick was quickly learning that she keeps tabs on everybody. When he asked if she might know Amaya's address she'd rattled it off as though she spent a lot of time there, which she assured him she didn't. Mick couldn't help but think that Felicity would be just fine should she ever find herself in Juvie, hell she'd probably be running the place after only a few weeks. Anyway, he made it to the address and knocked on the front door. Admittedly he was a little nervous for this conversation, ok, make that a lot nervous. Apologies aren't exactly his strong suit, and he's already put himself through one today. His nerves only increased when the door opened, and his mouth morphed into a frown when he saw who was standing there.

"What are you doing here?" He asked coldly.

"Family dinner," Nate replied, equally as surprised and annoyed to see Mick as Mick was to see him. "What are you doing here?" He demanded, though he had a feeling that he already knew.

Mick opened his mouth to answer, not entirely sure what he was going to say, but he didn't have to decide because the door opened wider and revealed Amaya.

"Mick?" She asked, "What are you doing here?"

Again Mick opened his mouth to speak, and again he was cut off.

"Kids, are you coming to the table or are Raymond and I starting without you?" A voice called from somewhere in the background.

Amaya and Nate looked at each other, seeming to have a silent conversation between them before Amaya broke the eye contact and smiled apologetically at Mick.

"Why don't you join us for dinner?" She invited, much to the obvious annoyance of Nate. "Your family has had me over after all, and you came all the way over here, it only seems fair." She insisted when he didn't answer right away and maybe it was because he still hadn't apologized to her, or maybe it was just the opportunity to annoy Nate Heywood was too good to pass up. Either way Mick found himself nodding and walking into the house.

* * *

An hour had passed when Leonard heard a cough in the doorway and looked up to see a familiar blonde in light blue jeans and pink long sleeved top, but also a broken look on her face that almost matched his.

"My mom's talking to the officers and that Nelson guy, they sent me to come get you guys." She said solemnly.

For a minute the three of them just stared at each other. Nobody moved, nobody blinked, nobody breathed. It was just the three of them, trying to stay in this moment for as long as possible. For the Snart siblings, their entire lives had already been plunged into a whirlwind. For Sara, that was just beginning. But for all of them, these were their last few seconds of semi-normalcy. Their last few seconds of being nothing but acquaintances to each other before they all walked out of here. They needed to live in those last few seconds, because once they were over, nothing was ever going to be the same for them.


	11. More Than You Knew

Dinner was awkward to say the least.

Sitting around the kitchen table was Nate, Ray, their grandfather, Amaya, and Mick. Yet with five people, two of who never shut up, it was painfully quiet. The only sound was that coming from the various forks hitting plates to pick up new strands of spaghetti.

"Alright, what's the secret?" Mr. Heywood finally demanded, earning himself four very confused looks from the teenagers.

"Um… what?" Nate asked,

"Well I've got four teenagers sitting around my kitchen table and no one's saying a thing! Either you all lost your voices or you're trying to hide something." The old man exclaimed and the four teens exchanged glances before slowly returning back to their dinners, all except for Ray that is.

"Well… I got an A on my chemistry test today." The bright-eyed teen announced and Mick rolled his eyes, like they didn't all already know that.

"Good job Ray," Mr. Heywood congratulated, though it was obvious that he was only humoring his grandson. "What about the rest of you?" He asked.

"B+," Amaya answered simply.

"F," Mick supplied quietly,

"Not in chemistry," Nate chimed in.

"I wasn't asking just about your chemistry classes," Mr. Heywood clarified with a frown and waited for somebody else to say something but no one did. "You know, I can just make you go around the table and share something about your day like my parents used to do to me." He vaguely threatened.

"You mean something other than the murder showing up at our door?" Nate asked and Mick narrowed his eyes at him.

"Nate!" Amaya practically shouted,

"What?" Nate demanded, "Look it's bad enough that you hang around with him on your own time, but now you're bringing a killer into my grandfather's home-"

"You don't know what you're talking about!" Amaya cut off, "Mick-"

"I do know what I'm talking about!" Nate practically screamed back at her, getting right into her face made easy by the fact that he was sitting next to her. "I've known this kid since the first grade and he has NEVER been anything but a violent, selfish, lowlife. He murdered his family-"

"ENOUGH!" The sudden command came from Mr. Heywood, and it was more than enough to silence the teens from shouting over each other. It was then that they noticed Ray looking at them with wide, almost fearful eyes, and Mick… Mick was gone.

* * *

After stopping at a drive through for a quick dinner the Lance car pulled into the parking lot of an apartment complex not far from Central City University. The ride had been quiet, the only words spoken coming from Mrs. Lance when she asked what everybody wanted at the drive through. It was quiet now, too, as the four of them walked across the parking lot and into the building. The entrance led into a small lobby, and that meant  _small_. It wasn't even a lobby really, just the base of a stairwell with a door off to the side the Len assumed led into a closet of some sort. They climbed up the stairs until the reached the third floor and stepped into the hallway. The walls of the hallway were painted yellow and lit dimly by light mounted every couple of feet, every seven feet if Len was counting right.

They came to a stop outside of apartment 3H, halfway down the hall, and waited as Mrs. Lance fidgeted with her keys.

"I'm sorry if it's a little messy, we're still unpacking a few things." She apologized just as she got the key in the lock and ushered them inside.

The door opened up into a living room furnished with an old leather couch and matching chair, along with a wooden coffee table that was practically buried by cardboard boxes, bubble wrap, and tissue paper. There was no official divider between the living room area and the kitchen behind it, but Len could sort of sense where one ended and the other began. The kitchen had a decent sized wooden table in the center, and the walls were lined with matching cabinets as well as a refrigerator and an oven. There was a doorway into a small hallway off to the side, where Mrs. Stein explained was the location of the bathroom as well as her and Sara's bedrooms.

"You two can sleep in Sara's room," the woman went on, "and she'll sleep with me." Len couldn't help but spare a glance over at Sara, wondering her opinion on this arrangement. He had always written her off as kind of a spoiled child after all, so he was half expecting her to stomp her foot and cry about not wanting to give up her room.

But instead her face was as blank as he imagined his was, certainly as blank as Lisa's. It was like she was still processing all of this; like she couldn't believe her tipping off about Lewis had gone this far.

"Sara?" Her mother asked and suddenly she was snapped to attention. She locked eyes with her mother and nodded to some unspoken request, before turning her attention to her guests.

"Come on," she instructed softly, cocking her head towards the hallway and without a word Len pulled Lisa along, following Sara to her room.

"That's the bathroom," she explained as the passed the first door in the hallway, making their way down the right side of it until they came to the end and she pushed the door open.

Inside the room was pretty much exactly what he would've expected the dwelling of Sara Lance to look like.

The walls were painted a light lavender color, and the lack of damage anywhere told him that the paint had been done fairly recently. She had a double bed with a light blue comforter and matching pillow. There was also a white vanity, overrun with make-up and hair products, pushed up in the corner against the wall opposite her bed, and a dresser against the next wall. There was a door next to her bed, which undoubtedly led to her closet. The wooden floor was also littered with clothes that the blonde was currently scrambling to gather up and deposit into a laundry basket. Other than that there wasn't really anything about the room that surprised Leonard, except for the poster of some female martial artist with some sort of devil looking creature in the background tacked to the wall above the dresser, but he figured she only had it as some sort of "girl power" representation.

"Ok," She said, breaking Len out of his thoughts. She stood in front of him; pajama's crumpled in her hand and clearly every bit as uncomfortable with this situation as he was. "There are towels and soap and stuff in the bathroom, mom and I usually shower in the morning. I don't know what you two usually do…"

"I'll give Lisa a bath before she goes to bed," He said when Sara trailed off, before his eyes went down to his sister. "In fact, I should probably do that now." He said, his voice just teasing enough to add some sense of semi-normalcy to the situation and break the tension in the room.

"Do I have to?" Lisa groaned and Len snickered, along with Sara.

"Yes," he insisted, moving to take her backpack from her but soon found that he had put himself in a position where he didn't know what to do.

Sara, sensing his discomfort, nodded over to her bed and he nodded his thanks as he followed her silent instructions and set the two backpacks down on the mattress.

* * *

Mick honestly wasn't sure why he was surprised when Amaya showed up at the Diggle's house just as his foster parents were getting the twins ready for bed. It was with a reluctant groan that he answered the door, and an even bigger groan he gave in greeting to the girl on the other side.

"What do you want?" He demanded,

"To apologize for what Nate said to you," she said and while Mick did open the door wider for her to come in he also avoided her eyes.

"Don't bother," He mumbled as she crossed him and he shut the door behind her. "I deserve it." He insisted, making his way deeper into the living room and flopping down onto the couch.

"Excuse me?" Amaya asked but her question went unanswered, as that was the exact moment when the giggles of a toddler sounded out from the staircase and the two of them looked over to see Sara sliding down on her bottom with Lyla running hot on her tail.

"Hi Amaya," The woman greeted exasperatedly as she scooped up her laughing daughter.

"Hello Mrs. Diggle," Amaya greeted politely but the woman was already trudging back upstairs, so she turned back to Mick.

"What do you mean you deserve it?" She asked again and Mick shrugged.

"I've never exactly given pretty boy a reason to like me," he said, "Not only did I use to shake him and Haircut down for lunch money, but I sabotaged a science fair or two and gave them each more than enough black eyes. Especially Pretty." He explained, "And they weren't the only ones. You want to know why Snow's so quiet? It's cause I spent my whole life making her feel like trash. Face it; I'm exactly the monster that Nate keeps telling you I am." He went on but stopped when he saw that Amaya was laughing, actually laughing, at his confession. "What's so funny?" He demanded.

"You," she laughed before catching her breath and composing herself. "You need to get over yourself." She said,

"What?" He asked, confused.

"Please, you think you're the only reason that Caitlin doesn't talk to people?" She rhetorically asked, "You might be a part of it, a big part even, but there's something else going on there. No one person is responsible for all that. You bullied Ray for years, relentlessly from what I've heard, and not to mention his parents died before he turned two-"

"What?" Mick interrupted but Amaya didn't acknowledge it, in fact she didn't even hear it.

"But he's still one of the most optimistic people I have ever met." She said before finally noticing that Mick had gone slack jawed when she mentioned Ray's parents. "What?" She asked, "You didn't know about his parents?"

Mick shook his head, guilt washing over him like a tidal wave. He had known Nate was protective of his younger cousin, despite him being the one suffering from hemophilia, and he knew that the two had always spent a lot of time together to the point where they were more like brothers, but he had no idea that there was such a dark reason behind it.

"Hm," Amaya hummed thoughtfully, "Nate's mad at a lot of things Mick, you being a major one, but not the only one." She said, "You aren't the root of everyone's problems Mick, no matter how much Nate tells you otherwise."

Mick was quiet for a minute, and so was she. He couldn't understand, would never be able to fathom, how exactly it is that she can continue to give him the benefit of the doubt.

She started to walk away, having said all that she had come here for, when he was considering telling her the truth. That Nate's right, he murdered his parents. But something held him back. Maybe it was his fear that she would run and tell the police or maybe it was that it felt nice to have someone see him as something other than a junior felon, a reject of the school system, or just a plain stupid, useless, annoyance.

"You're not out to get me, are you?" He asked when she was halfway to the door and when she turned back around she met his serious face with an amused smirk.

"You finally figuring that out?" She asked teasingly and he smiled. Nothing more than a crooked half smile, but a smile nonetheless.

"I think so," he replied and her smirk morphed into a smile.

"I'll see you at school," she said before heading out of the house, leaving Mick to smile at the space where she had been standing.

"Word of advice Mick," A voice cut in, nearly giving the teenager a heart attack. Mick turned and looked to see John standing on the stairs, clearly having observed a good portion of the exchange if his smug grin was any indication. "When you find a woman who looks at you like that, it's best that you never let her go."

* * *

After giving her a bath, Leonard managed to get Lisa into Sara's bed and asleep by only a half an hour later than her usual bedtime. But that was still far too early for him to be going to bed, and he doubted he would be sleeping much tonight anyway. He glanced more around Sara's room while he waited for Lisa to fall asleep. He noticed that there were a few pictures on top of her dresser. One was of a girl who, upon closer inspection, looked to be about their age. The other one looked to be a Christmas photo, and more than a few years old too. In it was Mrs. Lance and a man Leonard could only assume was Sara's father. There were also two little girls, older than Lisa but younger than himself and Sara. Still, he was sure that one of the girls was in fact Sara. He assumed it was the smaller one, even though they were both wearing identical red dresses, they clearly weren't twins. There was something about the smaller one; with her hair an almost platinum blonde color, freckles dotting her face, and tongue sticking out, that just screamed Sara. The other girl, with her darker hair and bright but closed mouth smile, practically radiated a maturity and reserved nature that Sara just couldn't pull off.

He wondered about the girl, who she could possibly be. The logical explanation would be that she's Sara's sister, but as far as he knows such a relation doesn't exist. Then again he hardly knows anything about his peer mentor, it could very well be that this mystery girl is already eighteen and living somewhere on her own.

Stepping away fro the pictures Len wandered another step or two around the room until he found himself leaving and making his way back to the main living area. He wasn't exactly sure what had drawn him there; maybe he just didn't want to risk waking Lisa. But once he was there he immediately wanted to turn back because he found Sara sitting on the couch and watching a movie. He could've turned back, as she didn't notice him right away. But instead he found himself walking deeper into the room until he was standing beside the couch.

"Lisa's asleep, mind if I join you?" He asked and at first she looked up at him through her bangs in surprise, but she nodded and allowed him to claim the seat next to her.

They were quiet at first, content to just stare absently at the TV and maybe half focus on the movie. What Leonard saw on the screen was some woman talking on the phone with her mother, something about a brother's wedding and the girl clearly did not approve of the bride.

"I'm sorry," Sara finally spoke up and Len looked over at her, he hadn't even realized that she was looking nervously at him. "I didn't think… I mean obviously I thought something wasn't right, but I didn't want to believe it." She said and he looked away, back to the TV where the woman was arriving at an airport and rushing to hug her mother and some kid around the age of twelve.

"Me neither," he admitted and while he could feel Sara's eyes back on him, he didn't look away from the TV. He also didn't say anything more on the subject, and he hoped that Sara wouldn't either.

"You guys are going to be ok," she assured him and he looked at her with a doubtful glare, only to find fear in her blue eyes that said she wasn't sure if she believed her words. She was scared for him, every bit as he was scared for himself, and it instilled in him this urge to assure her that she was right.

But he couldn't, not when he was so unsure.

They were quiet again, for longer this time. Eventually the movie got to a dinner scene and Len decided that they had been quiet long enough.

"Who's the girl in those pictures on your dresser?" He asked and the look she gave him was every bit as disgusted as it was shocked, so he raised his hands in mock surrender. "I wasn't snooping," he promised her, "I was just bored and sitting there waiting for Lisa to fall asleep." He defended and while she didn't look any less irritated with him he did see a flicker of hurt flash through her eyes.

"My sister, Laurel." She answered.

"I didn't know you had a sister," he said conversationally but it didn't do anything to ease the growing pain in Sara's eyes.

"That's because she lives with our dad." She explained, "The divorce happened this past year, and the judge figured Laurel and I are both teenagers, both our parents were approved as fit guardians, so we were allowed the option to be part of the custody arrangement. Mom had already accepted her job out here, so it was going to be full custody either way. It was messy. Everything else was easy for them to split up, but the fighting over where we would go never ended. Finally we decided that there was only one real, fair solution: we split up." There were tears leaking out of her eyes now and Len was listening intently, he'd known her parents were divorced but he had no idea the arrangement had torn her away from her sister, whom she clearly loves. "It was a no brainer that Laurel would stay in Star City with dad; they've always had this special connection and she has her boyfriend out there. The judge asked if we were sure, asked if our parents were sure, and when we all said yes she approved it. I haven't seen Laurel since." She finished, tears now streaming freely down her face and she couldn't help but sniffle as she tried to get them under control. "I'm sorry," she apologized, "I'm sorry. You've got more than enough problems and-"

Len, though he had no intentions of doing so, cut her off as he scooted ever so closer to her and placed an arm around her shoulders, pulling her head onto his shoulder.

"It's alright," she promised, "Believe me, I'm glad to focus on somebody else's problem right now." He half joked before his face grew serious again. "I'm sorry." He said and he let her cry into his chest, then at some point he started crying, no longer able to hold back the tears caused by his father, and it turned into her comforting him.

Eventually they had both cried all their tears and lay sleepily together on the couch until the movie was over, at which point they went their separate ways for bed.

As Leonard crawled into Sara's bed Lisa stirred just a little, but not enough to fully wake. He just lay there, thinking about the past two hours of watching a movie and occasionally talking about their families. There was certainly more to Sara Lance than he knew, that was for sure. So of course that was what he was thinking about when he finally drifted off to sleep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know, this was a heavy chapter and focused a lot on Mick and Len. I promise the next one we'll see some more comedy and more of the other characters. Also, gold star to anyone who can identify the movie Sara was watching. I know it was vague references but I'll give you a hint; one of the Legends is in it!


	12. Let Me Help

Dinah would never regret signing her name on that report in case Leonard and Lisa Snart were found to need emergency temporary custody, not ever. Besides, she had handled getting two teenagers ready for school in the morning before, she was sure that adding a five year old to the mix who didn't even need to be ready until over an hour later would hardly have any effect.

She was wrong.

Then again, it wasn't the five-year-old who instigated the chaos.

It started off early, when she was awoken by the sound of a scream and went racing out of bed only to stumble upon what was quite possibly the most ridiculous sight she could've found.

The bathroom door was open, Leonard was stumbling backwards with an arm flung over his eyes as though they had been burned, Lisa was peeking out from Sara's bedroom, and Sara was standing in the center of the bathroom with a towel just barely wrapped around her body.

"What is going on out here?" Dinah demanded exasperatedly, although she didn't really need to ask, as it was quite obvious what was happening.

"I forgot she said she would shower in the morning!" Leonard shouted,

"You could've knocked on the door!" Sara shouted back at him just as his arm barely came down from his face.

"I didn't think anyone was in there! The light was off!" He shouted but Sara didn't fire anything back at him. She just stared wide-eyed at him, and so did Dinah. "What?" He asked, obviously confused as to what everyone was suddenly so distracted by.

"Maybe you shouldn't go to school today Lenny," Lisa muttered, emerging into the hallway with her pointer finger angled at her brother's neck. Len, still very confused, reached up to touch the spot his sister was indicating only to be met with a familiar pain.

"Oh seriously?" He asked with a roll of his eyes, marching into the bathroom in order to use the mirror, despite Sara's presence. Sure enough, there was a large purple mark in the damning shape of a hand beginning to appear in the spot where his father had choked him yesterday.

"Lisa might be right, although I can't just leave you here." Dinah considered as she tried to figure out a solution.

"I can fix it," Sara offered and Len, along with the other two, looked skeptically at her.

"How?" Leonard demanded,

"Make-up," The blonde replied confidently, "Just give me ten minutes to shower and I'll fix it," she promised and while Leonard wasn't exactly thrilled by the idea of wearing make-up, to school no less, he knew that there was no way Mrs. Lance was going to leave him alone in her apartment for the day so his options were either that or deal with the stares of people seeing the mark of his father.

Needless to say, he walked out of the bathroom and joined Lisa for breakfast while Sara took her shower.

True to her word once Sara finished in the shower, and once Leonard had taken a quick one himself, she hurried up to dry her hair while he got dressed and claimed that right after they were both done she would cover his bruise. Len cursed himself for only having grabbed a normal sweater yesterday as opposed to a turtleneck; he should've realized that nearly being choked to death was going to leave a mark on him. But they had been in such a rush, and Lisa had been hysterical, he had been so much more concerned when grabbing her things that he didn't even think of it.

A knock on the door snapped him out of his thoughts.

"Come in," He called and Sara slipped into the room, making her way straight for her vanity.

"Sit," she instructed, pointing to the end of her bed and with a huff he complied. She turned around the vanity chair and took a seat in front of him, a little bottle of skin colored gunk in her hand that he was closely watching her uncap.

"What is that?" He asked.

"Concealer," she replied simply, "It's not exactly your tone, but it'll do." She said as she discarded the cap and met his uncertain and fearful eyes with a gaze that almost matched, but there was something reassuring in her blue eyes that, surprisingly, put Leonard at just a little bit of ease. "Look up," she instructed gently and he complied. She reached out ever so tenderly towards the side of his neck, unsure whether or not he could see her. "I'm not going to hurt you," she promised just before her fingers brushed the skin.

_"I know,"_ The unbidden thought crossed through Leonard's mind and he was very conscious to keep it from slipping past his lips. But it was true, he may not trust easy but he did know, for whatever reason, that he could trust Sara.

He couldn't see her with his eyes forced up towards the ceiling, but his skin tingled when he felt the tips of her fingers firm on the side of his throat. He could feel the intensity of her concentration as a finger from her other hand worked in smooth strokes to smear the gunk along his throat, her touch lightening and an apology being muttered whenever he flinched as she hit a particularly painful part of the bruise. Occasionally she used her clean hand to re-angle his head as so to be sure she covered the entire mark.

While she worked, she thought about days Leonard had missed school in the past. She thought about how she had assumed he was skipping solely because he felt like it, like so many of the rebel wannabes at their school. But now, now she couldn't help but wonder if his father had more of a hand in those days.

"Done," she announced once she was finished, as she recapped her bottle Leonard lowered his head and glanced over her shoulder into the mirror of her vanity.

"Nice work," he mused, instinctively moving a hand up to his throat only to have her swat it away.

"Don't mess it up," she warned before thinking on the logistics of that and deciding to hand him the bottle. "Hold onto it for the day, just in case you need more."

He thought about telling her that he wouldn't know how to reapply it, but he decided that if he really needed it he could go find either her or another girl he trusted, not that there was one of those, MAYBE Felicity, and drag them off behind a stairwell to help him.

"Thank you," he said, slipping the bottle into his pocket, though he was thanking her for so much more than the make-up.

* * *

By the time Caitlin got to school she was still smiling and practically bursting with excitement. She hadn't told anyone about her date tonight with Ronnie. Who would she tell? She wasn't going to tell her mother; that was for damn sure. She had wanted to tell her best friend Cisco last night but it was his Abuela's birthday so he wasn't around. It was him that she was looking for as she walked around this morning, but when she passed by Felicity making oogily eyes at her boyfriend Cooper in the corner of a hallway she couldn't help herself. Besides, Felicity would want to know that her little scheme might actually go somewhere. So it was with a confidence that she doesn't normally possess that she broke free from the crowd and marched over to the nauseating couple.

"Can I borrow her for a second?" She asked sweetly, her hands already on Felicity's arm and dragging her away while she received confused looks from both the goth and her boyfriend.

"Caitlin? What are you doing?" Felicity demanded when she found herself being led down the hallway by her, uncharacteristically bubbly, peer mentor.

"I apologized to Ronnie, he's taking me out tonight!" The junior exclaimed and Felicity nearly screamed at the news.

"Oh my god!" She all but shrieked, "That's… that's great! Where is he taking you?" She demanded and the fall of Caitlin's smile was almost instantaneous.

"I don't know," she confessed, "He said he would pick me up at seven, but that's it."

"Ok seven, why don't I come over around six and help you get ready?" Felicity offered and Caitlin's eyes nearly bugged out of her head.

"What?" She asked, "No, I think I can handle getting ready myself. Thank you though." She said and Felicity fixed her with a deadpan look.

"No offence Caitlin, but when was the last time you went on a date?" She asked and Caitlin looked away.

"Well… never," she answered pitifully, "But you and I don't exactly have the same style, no offence."

"Don't worry, I know how to do normal make-up." Felicity assured her with a laugh.

"Well…ok." Caitlin reluctantly agreed and Felicity flashed her with a toothy grin before she broke away from her, off to rejoin Cooper.

"Great, see you at six." She half called half squealed over her shoulder as she returned to Cooper and left Caitlin to wonder what exactly she had gotten herself into.

* * *

"Man, that sucks." Mick said after Leonard had confided in him what had happened to him and Lisa yesterday. The two of them were currently walking the halls of the school's third floor and skipping their respective second period classes.

"Maybe," Len half agreed, "But not as much as my old man's fist around my throat, not yet." He continued, his hand reaching up to acknowledge his throat but falling back to his side as he caught himself, he didn't want to ruin Sara's patch job so early in the day.

"So… what's going to happen?" Mick asked and Len sighed, he had been hoping to maybe ask Mick that question; he's the one already in foster care after all.

"We're probably spending another night at Sara's," he guessed, "I doubt they'll hand us back to our dad after what they walked in on, so the question is whether or not they'll be able to talk him into giving us up."

"What happens if he does?" Mick questioned, he was put into the foster system because his parents and all other relatives are dead, and he still barely knows how it works.

"I'm just guessing," Len warned, "But I think that if he gives us up willingly it'll be a whole lot easier for us to be eligible for adoption."

Adoption.

Mick had literally never once realized that such a fate could be something in the cards for him. Or, you know, it might be if not for his past and another obvious factor, his age.

"Teenagers don't usually get adopted Len," He said bluntly and his friend hummed in agreement.

"No, but little girls do." He mused and Mick frowned.

"I don't know much about how the system works," the older boy began, "But from what I've heard, they like to try and keep siblings together."

"I was afraid you'd say that," Len said with a sad sigh.

"What are you going to do?" Mick asked, he may not always be the brightest bulb in the box, but he knows his friend well enough to know that he already had at least three plans formulating in that head of his.

"What I have to," Len replied, and that was all he would say for now.

* * *

"Amaya," Nate whispered when world history class had barely begun and yet already Mr. Hunter was struggling to tame two of the class's more rambunctious students.

But Amaya was careful to keep her eyes trained on her textbook.

"Amaya," He tried again but again she ignored him, choosing to write something down in her notebook instead. "So you're not talking to me now?" He asked and he decided to take her continued silence as a yes. "Look I'm sorry about what I said at dinner last night-"

"Like hell you are," her whispered words interrupted him and he nearly asked her to repeat herself, as it wasn't like her to sound so cold even when angry.

"Ok," he said, trying to determine how to respond to this very seldom seen side of Amaya. "I get that you're upset-"

"Upset would be putting it lightly," She interjected and so Nate pressed his lips together.

"Ok," he said, "Maybe unbelievably pissed would be a better way of describing it." He amended, hoping to maybe get a smirk or something out of Amaya but all he got was a grunt of agreement.

"Look Amaya, you didn't know Mick before-"

"You're right, I didn't." She agreed, clearly determined to keep Nate from finishing any of his sentences today. "I didn't know the snot faced little kid that he was over two years ago. All I know is who he is today."

"Amaya he put me in the hospital, several times!" Nate seethed through gritted teeth.

"Your hemophilia put you in the hospital," Amaya corrected.

"It wouldn't have if he hadn't been using me as a human punching bag!" He quietly exclaimed, looking over to make sure that Mr. Hunter wasn't looking. The man had started teaching again, but otherwise was paying no notice to his two top students discussing something other than the notes. "And when I was there, I wasn't here to protect Ray."

"Yet Ray was relieved and happy to see Mick when he first came back." Amaya argued and Nate snapped his mouth shut at that, for a moment.

"Ray's too innocent for his own good," he finally excused but Amaya gave him a knowing look.

"Maybe," she partially agreed, "Or maybe you're too vengeful for yours." She suggested; leaving Nate not knowing what on earth he could say at this point to convince her Mick is dangerous.

Not to mention wondering if maybe she was right.


	13. Get Ready for the Night

When Sara and Leonard boarded Sara's school bus in the morning, Leonard presenting a signed note saying he had permission to ride, it had barely been daybreak and the other students were all too tired to give him more than a second look. But now that it was afternoon and everyone was wide-awake things were looking to be a different story.

"Oooo, freshman's got a boyfriend!" One boy obnoxiously announced in a singsong voice, Leonard could tell just by his appearance that he was most likely a senior.

"Put a sock in it Tony," Sara commanded with just a little bit of a smirk, one Leonard could see she was giving only so the older boy wouldn't take her as serious as she really wanted and therefor start trouble.

"Sara, what's this?" Another boy, one who also looked older and not very friendly, said as he stepped out in front of her. "I thought we had something special?" He said in a tone that might have been teasing to a friend, but from where Leonard was sitting it almost seemed threatening.

But Sara, who was obviously no friend to this guy, kept her cool and smiled up at him even as he invaded her space and snaked an arm around her shoulders.

"For the hundredth time Hartley, you thought wrong." She said sweetly, taking one of the fingers that was resting on his shoulder and bending it up at an awkward angel so that it emitted a grunt of discomfort from the boy who was so much taller than her. "Now don't make me break it," she threatened and so it was with a nod that Hartley conceded to his defeat, and a few seconds longer that Sara held his finger before she released him.

"I'll break you one of these days Lance," he swore as he took his seat, and in a voice that sounded like he meant his words.

"Sure you will," Sara said dismissively as she claimed the spot next to Leonard, hardly affected by Hartley's declaration. "What?" she asked once she noticed Leonard was staring at her, and of course he blinked and looked away rather abruptly.

"Nothing," he insisted.

* * *

"Oh my god it's finally happening!" Cisco all but squealed as Caitlin led him into her bedroom. After she told him that she had a date with Ronnie tonight he, much like Felicity, had insisted that he spend his evening at her house helping her prepare. "Oh man, I have been waiting since like sixth grade for this!" He gushed and although Caitlin was in front of him he could practically feel her roll her eyes at him.

"Imagine how I feel," she mumbled maybe just a tad harshly but he let it go.

It wasn't that Catlin wasn't excited, she was and Cisco knew it. It's just that she doesn't really like having a lot of attention on her; it isn't exactly something that she knows how to handle. For as long as Cisco had known his best friend he had known her to navigate the world alone. She doesn't share things with people, he's had to claw his way into her life inch by inch and earn every piece of personal information that she has given him. So it isn't that she's not excited for her date, it's that she's nervous and doesn't want him making too big a deal in case it doesn't go well.

But it is going to go well, he knows it is.

"So what are you going to wear?" He decided to ask, not commenting on her off-putting tone, which he can tell she was grateful for.

"I don't know," she answered, her shoulders suddenly deflating as her mind began to race to superhuman speeds. "I don't even know where we're going! Are we going to the movies or to dinner? If we go to dinner is it like Big Belly Burger or Russo's? What else is there besides dinner or the movies? What if it's not either of those?"

Cisco was on his feet the moment he saw Caitlin's eyes widening with panic and he threw his hands onto her shoulders in an effort to calm her before she went past the point of no return.

"Caitlin breathe," he instructed her, "Breath," he repeated and this time she did as he said.

"Maybe I should just call and cancel," she suggested.

"No," he denied, "You are not canceling on Ronnie. You are going to relax, dig through that dresser, and find the perfect first date outfit." He more ordered than suggested.

"I don't know if I have anything perfect," Caitlin all but whined, however the determination was already set in stone on Cisco's face and there was going to be no turning back from here, not on his watch.

* * *

"Hey man, what's up?" Ray asked, lingering inside the doorway of Nate's bedroom. Ordinarily his cousin would walk with him straight to their grandfather's house after school and stay there for most of the afternoon. But this time Nate had said he'd rather go right home, so naturally after an hour of loneliness, as Amaya was currently volunteering at the hospital, he decided to go over and see what his cousin was up to.

"Feeling sorry for myself." The older boy admitted, he wasn't doing anything aside from sitting at his desk and jotting down notes from one of his many history books. "I think Amaya is one argument away from never talking to me again."

"Why is that?" Ray asked, although it didn't really surprise him given how he had noticed the frown that was starting to become a regular occurrence on Amaya's face every time she spoke with Nate.

"She thinks that I'm projecting anger that isn't necessarily towards Mick, onto Mick." The older boy said with a dismissive huff and Ray hummed with thought, he had tried to stay out of this argument for as long as possible but even he knew that it was going to involve him sooner or later. "Hey, are you still mad at Mick? For how he treated you when we were kids?" Nate continued, spinning around in his chair so that he could watch his younger cousin's reaction.

Ray shrugged at the question, "Not really," he replied despite knowing that it wasn't what Nate wanted to hear. "I mean… the stuff he did to me was mostly physical. But you know, cuts and bruises heal so no harm no fowl."

"No harm?" Nate demanded, rising to his feet. "Ray he blew up your fifth grade science project."

"That one I am still a little peeved about," the younger boy admitted. "But Mick's life hasn't exactly been a cakewalk-"

"And that excuses what he did?" Nate demanded.

"No," Ray assured, "But we're not seven years old anymore." He said firmly, "Look, I don't know if Mick was behind the fire that killed his parents or not; honestly he probably was. You're right, he probably has spent these past two years in Juvie. But I refuse to believe that he did what he did simply as a way of acting out. He was my age Nate, am I a killer?" He pleaded and for the first time Nate didn't know what to say.

"What?" He finally asked.

"Exactly," Ray said, "Look, you might have spent the majority of your childhood in a hospital, but your childhood isn't exactly over. We're still kids Nate, and I get that you're mad about everything that he used to do, but I can't help but wonder how a kid could get to the point where he burns his parents alive."

* * *

"I don't know honey," Dinah Lance said to her daughter. In all the chaos that had occurred over the last twenty-four hours she had completely forgotten that she was supposed to meet James tonight.

"Mom, we'll be fine." Sara insisted; the last thing that she wanted was for a mess that she got them into to cause her mother to cancel her plans.

"It's just that Jefferson would need to stay here, are you sure you can handle two kids?" Dinah asked skeptically but Sara laughed at the notion that she couldn't.

"Of course," she promised, "Besides it's not like I'm here alone, Len's here." She reminded and that had Dinah looking past her daughter and over to the teenage boy sitting stiffly on the edge of the living room couch while his sister knelt by the coffee table with a coloring book and box of crayons.

It wasn't that she didn't trust Leonard, it was… no it was exactly that she didn't trust him. She had nothing against him; she simply wasn't very comfortable leaving two kids whom she barely knows alone in her apartment. But Sara would be with them, and back in Star City she had left both Sara and Laurel alone with their friends in the house all the time. Granted those friends were always girls, but that hardly matters considering it's no secret that Laurel has snuck her boyfriend into the house when no one else is home a countless number of times.

"Well… ok," She hesitantly agreed and Sara gave a smile and small cheer of victory. "We won't be gone long, I'll leave you money for pizza." She went on and Sara nodded.

"Cool, thanks." She said and with that she turned away from the counter and went to inform Leonard on how the two of them would be spending their night.

* * *

"Are you sure that you girls don't need my help?" Donna Smoak asked for probably the thousandth time, though this might be the last considering they were now pulled up in front of Caitlin's house.

"I'm sure mom," Felicity said dismissively, leaning over her seat to grab her make-up kit.

"Well honey you know, I am very good with make-up." Her mother oh so helpfully reminded.

"Yeah I know, but we've got this. Come get me a little after seven."

"Ok honey, I love you!" Donna called, attempting to lean over and give her daughter a hug and a kiss but not quite making it before Felicity was out the door.

"Love you too," The goth called habitually over her shoulder, shaking her head at her mothers embarrassing antics as she walked towards the house.

Knocking on the door she waited a few minutes until it opened and a woman with dark hair, glasses, and a face that looked rather annoyed answered the door.

"Hi, I'm looking for Caitlin?" Felicity more asked than anything else, beginning to wonder if she had he right place.

"Come on in," The stoic woman said, waving the girl in before leading her up the stairs. "Caitlin's room is at the end of the hall." She said once they had reached the top of the stairs, pointing in the direction of the room and when Felicity nodded she disappeared back down the stairs.

Walking down the hallway Felicity glanced around at the maroon colored walls. They were mostly bare, but there were a few that displayed some framed photographs of a little girl that could only be a younger Caitlin. In one she was in a soccer uniform and in the next it was a white tutu. At the end of the hall, in the corner between two closed doors, there was one more picture. This one of two newborn babies. It was an old picture, Felicity observed, as the frame was coated with dust. She didn't know why, but something about the picture set an unsettling feeling inside of her stomach. So she brought her eyes away from it and instead knocked on the door that had light peeking out through the crack underneath.

"Come in," A voice, Caitlin's voice, called and so Felicity placed her signature teasing smirk back onto her face as she opened the door.

"Jeez, is your mom a robot or something?" She mocked, though she was almost thrown by the scene in front of her.

Caitlin was kneeling on her floor with a fold out ironing board and light blue dress in front of her, wearing nothing but jeans and a white bra, while Cisco Ramon sat on the bed with his eyes pressed closed but attention still obviously very focused on what was happening around him.

"Or something," Caitlin huffed as Felicity shut the door.

"Who's here?" Cisco called into the void of nothingness that he was seeing.

"Felicity," the goth replied and the longhaired boy gave a blind wave to her general direction. She then returned her attention to Caitlin, just as the other girl decided that she was satisfied with her ironing and stood up and pulled her dress over her head. "Nice," she appraised and Caitlin gave a small smile as she slid her jeans down her legs.

"Cisco, you can look now." She said over her shoulder and Cisco blinked his eyes open, an approving smile settling on his face as he did so.

"Looks good," he complimented.

"I agree," Felicity said as she grabbed hold of the nearby desk chair and wheeled it around, glancing down at her watch as she did so. "Now, let's get started on your make-up."

"Just… don't do anything too much." Caitlin requested nervously as she took a seat in the chair, eyeing the rather large make-up case Felicity had brought in with her with trepidation.

"Relax," Felicity said with a grin as she opened her case and bent down to be eye level with Caitlin. She studied the frightened features of the girl before her and soon she had decided on what to do.

So she reached down into her kit, pulled out some foundation, and began.


	14. Moving Forward

"Done," Felicity announced after only five minutes. She had done very minimal make-up on Caitlin, just some gray eye shadow and light mascara. The girl had already applied lip-gloss on her own and had cheeks naturally rosy enough to not require the enhancement of blush.

The sight of her nervous expression was enough to put a giggling smile on the goth girl's face, but when Caitlin stood and turned to look in her mirror and her whole face illuminated with a bright and almost disbelieving smile it was enough to replace Felicity's slight mockery with pride.

"It looks good?" Caitlin asked, turning back to her friends and Felicity did laugh, but not a laugh of mockery as she normally would.

"Great," Cisco assured his friend.

"Now," Felicity said as she took Caitlin by the arm and led her gently to sit back in her chair. "Let's do something about this hair," she suggested, moving to pull the hair tie but Caitlin ducked away and looked back over her shoulder with an almost sorrowful face.

"Oh no, I… I don't look good with my hair down." She insisted and Felicity quirked an eyebrow, meanwhile Cisco rolled his eyes.

"Yes you do!" The boy insisted but Caitlin shook her head stubbornly.

"No, I don't." Caitlin swore vehemently.  
"Says who?" Felicity all but scoffed and Cisco was all too eager to meet her eyes with a hard gaze.

"Who do you think?" He challenged, "The robot."

Felicity's eyes widened. She looked down at Caitlin only to find that the older girl was looking down at her feet in embarrassment.

"Well we're going to give it a chance," she said matter-of-factly, her mind made up and so before Caitlin could protest Felicity pulled the tie from her hair and began brushing through the light brown waves. Caitlin was surprisingly quiet throughout the whole ordeal and when Felicity asked if about a curling iron she directed her to the bathroom.

Meanwhile Cisco kept his eye on his watch as so to warn the girls when they would start running low on time, as well as watch the window in case Ronnie showed up early. He didn't know Felicity very well, had only seen her around school a few times, but he was liking her initiative in dragging Caitlin out of her comfort zone. He liked seeing the smile that lit up on the face of his best friend when she saw her reflection staring back at her, first after the make-up was done and then again after her hair had been curled ever so softly and it was falling in a way that framed her face beautifully.

"Congrats, you actually look like you're sixteen as opposed to twelve." Felicity snarked but the good nature in her words came across and Caitlin laughed.

Cisco beamed too, happy to see the fear and panic gone from his friend's face. But of course he just had to glance outside and notice the sight of a truck rolling up.

"Ronnie's here!" He announced and instantly the panic not only fell back onto Caitlin's face, but also onto Felicity's as well.

"Ok," Caitlin said as she slipped into her shoes and Cisco was quick to pack up her purse before handing it to her.

"Ok, you've got your lip gloss, bobby pins, blush, gum, mints, and your wallet in there. Make sure you call me the minute that you get home." He instructed.

"Um no," Felicity interjected, "I'm the one who got her ready, you call me the minute that you get home."

"We can do a three way call," Caitlin said before an argument could ensue between her two friends.

"Fine just get down stairs," Felicity encouraged,

"Wait!" Cisco called, diving for his backpack on the bed.

"What?" Felicity groaned but Cisco was too busy digging through his bag to answer her. "Cisco she has to get down stairs."

"Not... before I take a dad picture." The boy argued just as he pulled a digital camera out from his bag.

"A dad picture?" Caitlin questioned and Cisco nodded.

"Yes, it's your first date so I am commemorating the moment. Now go stand over against the wall young lady, that's where the light is best." He instructed and so with a roll of her eyes but also a smile Caitlin went over and stood against her bedroom wall.

"Caitlin!" The voice of her mother came shouting up from the bottom of the stairs.

"Ok let's go!" Felicity said,

"No, let him wait a few minutes. You go down there and tell him Caitlin will be right down, I'm going to take my pictures." Cisco stated firmly and while she normally wouldn't take orders from him Felicity quickly locked up her make-up case and darted out of the room.

The scene she saw when she reached the stairs was Ronnie standing awkwardly just inside of the doorway with Mrs. Snow in front of him, looking at him with the same distaste that she had given her.

"Hey," she said as she reached the bottom of the stairs, "Caitlin's coming down in a second." She said and Mrs. Snow nodded before leaving the room, both Felicity and Ronnie watching her go.

"Did I do something to make her not like me?" Ronnie whispered and Felicity shrugged.

"Probably not," she said, she had only met Mrs. Snow an hour ago but so far she didn't seem like someone who likes a lot of people. "I think she's just like that."

"Got it," Ronnie said just as Caitlin appeared at the top of the stairs, smiling brightly and capturing his attention.

A dumbstruck smile spread across his face, she always looked pretty but now there was something different about her; something other than her hair down and a little bit of make-up. She had this joyful glow around her as she made her way down the stairs, her eyes just as sparkling as ever. Of course he couldn't stay in his little trance forever, and Caitlin had just barely made it to him before Cisco Ramon of all people came rushing down the stairs and stopped right between the two of them.

"Cisco," Caitlin hissed into his ear but he ignored her, instead focusing on the football player who practically towered over him.

"Alright Ronnie," He tried to threaten, tried being the key word there. "What exactly are your intentions with Caitlin?" He demanded and while Caitlin face palmed both Ronnie and Felicity laughed.

"I intend to take her out," the boy answered but Cisco merely crossed his arms sternly.

"I'm going to need more than that," he said

"Not you won't," Caitlin intervened, stepping around her friend and over to Ronnie's side. "By mom, we'll be back later!" She called through the house, though she already had the front door open and was halfway gone by the time her mother called back.

That left Felicity and Cisco to stand in the living room alone, Felicity nearly doubled over laughing and Cisco glaring at the door as if it had personally offended him until Ronnie's truck had turned left off of the street.

* * *

When Jefferson first arrived at the apartment he and Lisa were both very shy toward each other. They loosened up when Sara brought out Chutes and Ladders and roped not only both kids but also Leonard into playing the game. By the time they had finished the two five year olds were practically best friends and were currently holing themselves away in Sara's room with the bag of action figures and racecars Jefferson had brought with him.

"Well this hardly feels like babysitting," Leonard observed as Sara scanned the take-out menu her mother had left.

"I know; it's nice having them entertain each other." She commented, her eyes never once leaving the pamphlet in her hands. "How many pieces of pizza will Lisa eat?"

"Probably one," Len replied and when Sara looked up at him with skepticism he shrugged. "Lisa and I don't exactly have big appetites." He said and Sara wasn't blind to the underlying meaning of his words, how they insinuated something about his father's parenting techniques that he didn't feel quite comfortable discussing, so she nodded and moved on.

"I'll get a medium," she decided, "Jefferson isn't really supposed to have soda, but James says it's fine every once and awhile. Should I even ask about Lisa?"

"I doubt Lisa even knows what soda is," Len replied, he could see that Sara was trying to tread carefully and he was grateful for it. So he answered her next question without waiting for her to ask it, knowing that she was trying to find a phrasing that didn't sound sorrowful. "I've had it a few times, don't have a particular preference. Except for that grape stuff, I can't stand it."

"Hey grape soda is amazing," Sara defended, smiling when Len rolled his eyes. "Fine, Coke it is. What should we get on the pizza?"

Leonard thought for a minute on the question, trying to think if Lisa has any allergies to anything that might go on a pizza or any preferences.

"I'll eat just about anything," he said, still trying to think back on the last time he and Lisa had eaten pizza. "Lisa will eat pepperoni but I'm not sure about anything beyond that."

Sara nodded understandingly, "Same for Jefferson, just pepperoni might be the safest way to go." She said and Len nodded in agreement. So with supper finally figured out Sara picked up the phone and called the pizza shop she had the menu for and began pacing the kitchen as she placed their order.

When she finished she put the phone down and returned to her seat at the table, Leonard still in his, and the two of them staring at each other.

"So what was with those boys on the bus?" He asked out of nowhere.

"Um… what do you mean?" Sara asked, understandably caught off guard by the question.

"Tony and Hartley, you know the first one tried embarrassing you for hanging around with a boy, and the other seemed a little possessive." He elaborated and Sara snorted in laughter.

"That's just what they do," She assured him, "They're just teasing."

Leonard hummed disbelievingly at her words. He could believe that Tony was only playing, some people are just jerks. But Tony wasn't exactly the one whom he was worried about.

"They do that everyday?" He asked and Sara huffed, clearly growing annoyed with this conversation.

"More or less," she replied, trying to keep the irritation out of her voice. "Tony just likes to embarrass people, Hartley's all bark and no bite-"

"That doesn't make it ok." Len interjected, deadly serious and catching Sara off guard yet again.

"Doesn't make what ok?" She asked, honestly confused.

"Come on Lance, it didn't exactly look like you wanted his arm around you." He pointed out, because he thought the situation was quite obvious, but the look that Sara gave him said differently.

His words were a wake up call. This had been happening, Hartley probably wasn't even the first, and right up until this moment Sara thought it acceptable. Then it dawned on Leonard that of course she would think that. He had always known that his father's abuse wasn't the norm because he could remember the days before his dad went to prison. But Lisa was born afterward, and he still remembers vividly the day she came home from a preschool birthday party with the story of how her friend's father had gotten mad but didn't hit the boy. To her hitting as discipline was normal; and while Sara was hardly in the same situation her face still wore the same look of epiphany that Lisa's had that day when she started to realize that their father had a tendency of taking things a little too far.

Again, Sara was by no means in THAT situation, but still something similar. It was in that moment that Leonard realized because she's a girl, and even more so a girl with blonde hair, blue eyes, and a chest, that it isn't unusual for a creep like Hartley to invade her space. That she was probably the girl who boys pushed down on the playground and when she cried teachers told her it was only because they liked her. Like that somehow made it ok for them to hurt her. He clenched his fist, suddenly thinking of how Lisa could one day soon come home with scrapes and bruises from the boys at school, and the teachers wouldn't do a damn thing about it. He knew they wouldn't, because he used to be one of those boys and nothing ever happened to him.

"You got me away from my father," he finally said, "So I know you know that they have no right to touch you."

She was quiet for a few seconds, mulling over his words and thinking on what she could say to them.

"That's why I threatened to break his finger," she finally defended.

"But you'll never do it," he countered and she looked down. He was right; they both knew it. If Sara were to hurt Hartley on school property, which happens to be the only place that he can bother her, then she could be suspended and it most likely wouldn't be worth it.

"Look, I can handle myself. Right now Hartley's just playing games, if he ever goes to far I'll do something about it." She promised and Len pressed his mouth into a firm line, not quite sure if he believed her or not. After all, it's a hell of a lot easier to save someone else rather than yourself.

"Ok," He finally agreed, he still wasn't sure he believed her but he did decide that it didn't really matter, because he was going to be keeping a close eye on Hartley from now on and would make sure to say something if he saw the boy going too far.

"Thank you," Sara said and the two fell back into silence, once again not knowing what exactly to do with themselves or each other.

"You got a deck of cards?" Len finally asked and Sara looked over at him in slight, but understandable, confusion.

"Somewhere," she answered,

"Know any games?" He asked and shrugged.

"Go fish, old maid, crazy eights." She replied but none of those answers seemed to interest Leonard. "Do you know Gin?" She asked and he nodded.

"Do you?" He questioned skeptically and she shrugged.

"No but, I've been wanting to learn. Think you could teach me?" She asked and he nodded.

"I think so," he drawled and so she headed over to one of the kitchen drawers and rummaged around until she found the deck. She then reclaimed her seat at the table and handed the cards over to Len, and they began.

* * *

In the time that Mick had been living with the Diggle family he had almost resembled a ghost in the house. He was there, but yet he almost wasn't. He minded his own business; went to school, came home from school, watched TV, locked himself away in his room, ate dinner, watched more TV, went to bed. Neither Lyla nor John have ever been passive people, but Mick was an entirely new situation. He needed space; every attempt that they made to get him to open up had been nothing more than fruitless efforts. The kid didn't want anything to do with his new life. So John's surprise was understandable when he walked by the twins' bedroom and saw the teenager standing in front of Sarah's crib with the little girl secure in his arms, her eyes half lidded as he bounced her gently.

Mick's eyes widened when he noticed his foster father standing in the hall, staring at him and obviously trying to make sense of this situation.

"I'm sorry," he whispered as he walked into the hall, still holding Sarah. "I heard her crying and I didn't want the other one to wake up, because then they would both be crying-"

"Mick," John interrupted him and the boy looked at him as though waiting to be scolded. "Thank you," he said.

Mick gaped at him, caught off guard and unsure of what to say. Sarah on the other hand was just now realizing that her father was right here and pushed herself off Mick to reach out to him.

"Hey baby," John cooed as he took his daughter from Mick, placing a gentle kiss to her head and rocking her. She laid her head against his shoulder and was asleep almost instantly. With a smile John entered the bedroom and gently laid her down in her crib.

When he turned around Mick was still in the hall, looking as though he had something to say but was too nervous to say it. So John was deliberately slow as he turned back and glanced in one more time at his sleeping twins before closing their door. Yet when he turned back to Mick the boy still looked like he was at a loss.

"You got something on your mind buddy?" John asked, figuring that maybe he could nudge the teen along a little but when his mouth closed he almost thought his words might have had the opposite effect.

"Do you…" Mick began to stutter, so maybe a little encouragement was all that he needed after all. "Do you know any place willing to hire a kid fresh out of Juvie?" He practically mumbled the question, but still John heard it, and knitted his eyebrows together.

"You're looking for a job?" He asked and Mick nodded, mutely, not yet ready to share his reasons, but he nodded. So John sighed, wondering whether or not he might regret this as he crossed his arms. "I might know a guy."


	15. New Beginnings

The next afternoon just so happened to be the scheduled date of another mentor meeting, and as usual no one wanted to go. Leonard, despite being a little more willing since he knew Mrs. Lance would be picking up Lisa, was still all but dragged into the cafeteria by Sara. Mick trudged in dragging his feet like usual and once he was there he glanced awkwardly at Amaya but said nothing, as they hadn't talked ever since she went to see him after the disaster of a dinner at her place. Helena and Victor appeared lost in their own little world, or worlds maybe, just like normal. Really the only thing out of the ordinary was the fact that the usual tension of spite between Caitlin and Felicity seemed to have vanished and the two girls were talking almost like best friends. So maybe it was the sound of their chatter that brought a smile to Mrs. Stein's otherwise stressed face as she entered the cafeteria, or maybe it was just pride in seeing that Helena was for once sitting on a seat as opposed to stretched out on one of the long tables.

"Hello everyone," she greeted warmly, setting her suitcase type bag at rest by one of the tables along with the mess of papers that seemingly always inhabited her arms.

The teens all gave murmured responses as they gathered around the table that their counselor had chosen, all of them wondering on at least some level how long they would have to be here.

"Now," Mrs. Stein began, "I want to start today by thanking you all for helping at the picnic, and I would like to address a slight mishap that we had." She continued, Mick tilting his head back and letting out a near silent groan when her eyes landed on him for just a brief moment, before she returned her attention back to the rest of the group. "There was a slight incident and it brought it to my attention that some of you may not be getting what we wanted you to take away from this program, probably a result of you not spending enough time together." She said, a small frown tugging at the corners of her lips.

"Well that's a load of bull," Felicity snorted, earning all eyes to her and an elbow to her ribs courtesy of Caitlin. "Well it is," she defended, "I mean I went to your house last night and I know that wasn't part of the deal when I got thrown in here, and everyone knows those two are… spending a lot of time together." She exclaimed, nodding to Helena and Victor and trailing off when she did, not exactly wanting to use a term as blunt as  _screwing each other_ in front of a woman as sweet and conservative as Mrs. Stein.

"And Rory and I have each been to each other's houses." Amaya put in, Mick arched an eyebrow when she called him by his last name but he didn't comment on it.

"Not to mention that for the past two days Sara and I have been living together." Leonard spoke up, just about everyone in the group knew about what happened with his father, and those who didn't know it was fun to watch their eyes widen.

"That aside I would like to make sure that the time you're spending together is constructive, so after talking with my husband I have made arrangements for us to take a field trip next Tuesday to the University for a tour." Mrs. Stein announced, and her words were met with a mixture of groans, but once the teens realized a field trip would get them all out of their classes for a day they were a little more agreeable. "Now, I have permission slips here, I would like for you all to have your parents or current guardians sign them." She continued on with her instructions, passing around the papers until each of the kids had one. "Also, because this is the first year we've run the mentor program I need to put together a portfolio of your progress at the end of the year to hand to the principal so that he can decide whether or not we'll continue the program next year. So by the end of this year I want each of you to write an essay-" A chorus of groans interrupted in response to the announcement, but they went ignored for the time being. "An essay," she stressed, "On how far you think you've come since joining the program, the hand your partner has played in your progress, and how you believe you affected your partner."

"Meaning you want us all to write about what they did to fix us?" Felicity asked, gesturing vaguely to the rest of her fellow mentees and then mentors.

"If that's how you feel," Mrs. Stein said, though with a hint of disappointment in her voice that made more than one of the teenagers internally question what she might actually want from that essay. "Now then," she continued with a clap of her hands, "About the field trip…"

And so Mrs. Stein went on explaining the details about what the tour would be like, what aspects of the university they would get to see, and mostly each detail bored her students more than the last; not that she noticed of course.

* * *

"Stein does realize that more than half of us never do our homework right?" Leonard questioned after he and Sara had been picked up by her mom and Lisa and were currently making their way up the stairs of the apartment building.

"Hey, she didn't say how long these essay's have to be. I might just hand in a paragraph." Sara replied but Len didn't have a chance to do the same, because by now they had reached the Lance apartment, and they had noticed the man in a suit waiting casually by the door.

Leonard gulped.

"Agent Nelson," Mrs. Lance greeted, although judging by her voice she was just as surprised to see the old man as the kids were.

"Hello Mrs. Lance, kids." He nodded to them before turning his focus back to Sara's mother. "Would you mind if I came in?" He requested, "I need to speak with you."

"Of course," Mrs. Lance agreed, moving past him in order to unlock the apartment.

While she led the social worker inside the two teenagers plus Lisa remained rooted in the hallway for a minute or two, unable to move as the reality of what was about to happen crashed down on all three of them.

Two days.

It had only been two days since Lewis Snart was caught in the act of strangling his son, the mark left on the boy still so fresh that it was only hidden thanks to Sara's talents in make-up. Yet it felt like it had been so much longer than two days.

"What's going on?" Lisa's little voice finally broke through the silence and Len looked down at her, the fear showing clear as day in her blue eyes.

He looked at Sara next, for what he wasn't sure, but in her eyes he also saw fear, and maybe she saw the same in his.

"We should go inside," she said and he nodded, but still they hung back a few seconds before their legs finally moved forward in an almost zombie like fashion.

They made it into the apartment and shut the door behind them, both Mrs. Lance and Agent Nelson had disappeared but the sound of hushed voices coming from the hall told the three exactly where they were.

"Why don't we watch some TV?" Sara suggested, sparing a glance down at Lisa and although he didn't necessarily want to Leonard agreed that she was right and so he led his sister over to the couch and let Sara switch on some cartoons; something mindless enough to entertain Lisa while still allowing herself and him to keep their minds in the real world if they so chose to.

They didn't at first.

At first they sat there content to escape into the world of the cartoon. It was just a silly little show about some time travelers on a spaceship, messing up more things than they fixed, but it was something. Once or twice Len glances over Lisa's head at Sara, and once or twice she did the same. One time they looked at the same time and met each other's eyes, and while they couldn't exactly talk with Lisa right there between them they didn't really need to. Sara's eyes were hard, guarded and challenging, daring Leonard to let his own guard down and trust her to tell him that everything was going to be ok. He couldn't though, not when he was so afraid that everything wasn't going to be ok. He tried to convey as much through his eyes, and that was when the footfalls of the two adults re-entering the main living area snapped them out of their little world.

"Leonard, can I speak with you in the hallway?" Agent Nelson asked. Len looked at him for a moment, almost dumbstruck, and only then did he realize how tightly to his side Lisa had plastered herself.

"Sure," he agreed, sitting himself up and gently guiding Lisa into Sara's arms before she could protest his leaving.

"He's coming back, right?" The little girl squeaked when her brother stood from the couch.

"Yes Lisa, don't worry." Agent Nelson assured her with a small smile, and while it did assure her enough to allow her to relax into Sara's embrace that doesn't mean she was so relaxed that you could've moved her away from the blonde girl.

Leonard, not knowing at all what to expect, followed the social worker into the hallway and remained quiet even after shutting the door behind them.

"How are you Leonard?" Agent Nelson asked and Len shrugged.

"Fine," he answered dryly, he didn't come out here for pleasantries.

"Your throat looks good, thought what we walked in on might have left a mark."

"It did, Sara's good with make-up." Leonard said impatiently and Agent Nelson sighed, it becoming apparent that the teen before him wanted to get right down to business.

"Your dad's going away Leonard, we don't know for how long yet, but his parental rights to you and Lisa are going to be taken away. You're not going back to him, ever." He said and Len found himself breathing out a sigh of relief, even if he knew that a whole other kind of battle was just beginning, at least the nightmare of living with Lewis Snart was over.

"Now," Agent Nelson said with a sigh, signaling that this was going to be the hard part of this discussion. "That being said, it's going to take some time for everything to go through, and a because of that some time before you or Lisa is eligible for adoption. So for the time being we need to place the two of you into a foster home." He explained and when he mentioned a foster home Len felt his mouth go dry.

"Lisa can't go from home to home," he stated firmly and Agent Nelson nodded.

"We're going to try moving you two as little as possible-"

"No," Len cut him off, he knew better than to believe that. The second that he and his sister leave the Lance apartment they will end up as nothing more than two faceless kids lost in the system. He could handle such a fate; he's already messed up. But Lisa might still have a chance in this world; and he'll be damned if he's going to be the reason that she loses it. "No, you're not going to shuffle Lisa around. You said there would be time before we're eligible for adoption, but there's got to be someone looking for a little girl who will foster and then adopt her when that time comes."

"Don't you want to stay with your sister, Leonard?" Nelson asked with a perplexed expression on his face, but Leonard's expression was deadly serious.

"What are the chances we have of being adopted together right off the bat?" He demanded and Nelson sighed.

"There's a family here in the city willing to take you both for the weekend, after that we'll move you both to a more permanent home, there's a group home with some openings-"

"So crappy then?" Len cut off and again the agent sighed.

"Leonard, I don't have to tell you any of this." He said, "I could just as well have marched right in there and told you and your sister to pack your bags. But you're not a little kid, you're a teenager and I am choosing to try and give you a say in where you and your sister go-"

"Then answer my first question," Leonard all but demanded.

Agent Nelson pressed his mouth into a firm line, and seriously considered telling Len to go back inside and grab his bag, but the fire in the boy's eyes commanded an answer.

"There's a family in Keystone," he said, almost sadly. "They've fostered a couple kids over the past seven years or so on an as needed basis. They have a one-year-old son and are looking for another child, through adoption this time. Most of the kids that they fostered in the past have been around Lisa's age, they might be a good fit for her. But, and no offence-"

"They don't want a teenage delinquent on their hands," Len finished for the older man. "Look," he huffed, "I don't want to be separated from Lisa, but I want her being shuffled from home to home even less. So if you think you know a family who will want her, who will love her, then can you please at least try to place her with them?" He drawled out and for a moment Agent Nelson was silent, and so was Leonard, but eventually the old man gave a sigh.

"Dinah Lance was granted permission to house you and Lisa for seventy-two hours, it's been forty-eight. I'll get in touch with the family tonight and come back tomorrow. But Leonard, if we separate the two of you, there's a good chance that you won't ever see her again." He warned but Len nodded slowly, his face remaining carefully blank. "Ok, I'll be back tomorrow."

* * *

Mick wasn't sure what exactly he was supposed to expect when John said that he might know someone willing to hire a kid with a record. He hadn't been surprised when upon returning home from school his foster father told him to change into something decent and get in the van. Of course Mick's idea of decent clothes were simply clothes without holes in them, but John let those pass as good enough and before the teenager knew it he was sitting in the passenger seat of his foster father's van while they drove through the city.

"This guy is a friend of a friend, a little nutty but the last time I saw him he mentioned that he was looking for some help," John said but Mick kept his face blank.

"You warn him about me?" He asked darkly and John actually snorted with a laugh.

"I did, he was thrilled to hear you have a record. He said something about this being the perfect job for you. Personally I don't see HOW, but there's usually a method to this guy's madness. Usually." The older man said and Mick wasn't too sure he liked the sound of that, but he needed to earn some money and he was on a bit of a time crunch to do it, so whatever it was that John had gotten him into he was just going to have to make the best of it.

The van stopped in front of a coffee shop Mick looked over at his foster father as if he were insane, but when all he did was open the door and hop out Mick followed the example.

Inside of the shop it was moderately busy, not packed but not exactly slow either. There were a few workers bustling around behind the counter and one of them, a skinny middle aged man, was looking over at them with a bright smile.

"John Diggle," He greeted as he came out from behind the counter and approached the two people standing in the doorway.

"H.R.," John returned the greeting before nudging Mick forward ever so slightly. "Here's your new bust boy."


	16. Everything I Do, I Do It for You

It doesn't really surprise Leonard when he can't fall asleep no matter how hard he tries that night. He was amazed when Lisa eventually drifted off. After Agent Nelson left he told his sister that the older man would return for them tomorrow and bring them to a new home with a new family, and that it might only be for the weekend before they would be sent to a house with a bunch of other kids. He didn't tell her that there was a chance, that if things work out in his favor, the two of them will be separated and she'll go straight to a new family where she hopefully, and most likely if Agent Nelson has such faith in the people, stay forever without him. He wasn't going to tell her about that until he knows for sure what her fate will be.

Eventually he got up, not being able to take just staring at the ceiling anymore, and quietly crept out of the room.

In the living room the TV was on, and once again Sara was seated on the couch and looked over her shoulder to him when she heard his footsteps approaching. She offered him a sad smile as he made his way over to join her, he HAD told her and her mother about his deal with Agent Nelson and the uncertainty of what might happen to Lisa tomorrow. His fate was already sealed; he'd head off to that weekend place before going into the group home on Monday. But Lisa still has a chance at a life, so long as he stays out of it.

He was content to watch the movie at first, this one appearing very different from the last one that he caught Sara watching and from what he gathered was some odd cross between a sci-fi alien movie and a gangster movie, but strangely enough it seemed to work. Still, it was only capable of holding his attention for so long before the inevitable question nagging at his brain could no longer be held back.

"What's it like not having your sister anymore?" He finally blurted out and Sara looked over at him, but he kept his eyes trained firmly on the TV.

"You get a little more attention," she answered half-heartedly and he looked at her with a raised eyebrow, he hadn't exactly been expecting her to joke.

She met his eyes and saw that her joke hadn't been funny, which she hadn't really expected it to be but she'd figured that it was worth the shot.

"It sucks," she deadpanned, turning back to the movie she wasn't really watching. "At first it's all you can think about. What she's doing, if she's happy, mostly if she's thinking of you. You wonder if she's mad at you or if by some miracle she actually understands why you did what you did, or if maybe she doesn't even care at all. And you can't ask her, can't walk into her room and fix things because you're not there. Everyone will tell you that you need to just forget about it, that she's fine and you should focus on other things like school, or friends, or dating. But you can't. Finding a way to live without her… it's not easy. Some days you can barely think about her, but most days it's just nagging at you. It's like you need to see her happy in order to move on with your life, and you don't know when or if you'll get that chance."

Leonard looked at Sara in surprise, and began to wonder if the decision for her to be the Lance sister to leave Star City hadn't exactly been as easy as she'd claimed the other night. Or maybe it was a lot like his decision; the choice itself was easy to make but the consequences were shaping up to be damn near impossible to live with.

An alien ramming through a door on the TV, and nearly mauling a kid in the process, dragged his attention back to the movie for a minute.

"Your mom let's you watch this?" He asked; Dinah Lance hadn't exactly struck him as the type of mother to approve of movies this violent.

"Don't tell her," Sara ordered and Len chuckled, that made more sense.

"Never," he promised and so they sat there in silence together, watching the movie, and trying to keep their minds from wandering to their sisters.

* * *

As usual Mick spent homeroom sitting quietly at his seat and carving random designs into the surface of the desk.

"Hey," a voice snapped him out of his little world and brought his attention to where Amaya had claimed the seat next to him. "You know you can get detention for that?" She mocked and he snickered before returning to his carvings.

"Wouldn't be the first time," he joked and despite not looking at her he could practically feel her smile.

The two of them had barely talked ever since the disaster of a dinner a few nights ago, or more specifically since Amaya showed up at the Diggle's residence afterwards and the two of them settled on somewhat friendly terms. Now it was almost like they had no idea how to act around each other. If they were friends then that meant they didn't mind being stuck with each other, and being stuck with each other had been the basis of their relationship thus far.

"I got a job," he suddenly blurted out, although the reason why was lost on him except maybe for the fact the seeing Amaya reminded him of why he got a job in the first place, and he wasn't going to admit that quite yet.

"Really, where?" She asked and he shrugged.

"That coffee shop downtown," He replied nonchalantly, "Flash coffee, or whatever it's called. Boss is a real nutcase but it's not bad."

"That's great," Amaya congratulated, "Well aside from the part about your boss being nuts, but it's great that you got a job."

Mick smirked at her enthusiasm, though he wasn't exactly sure what he was supposed to do with it.

"You and Pretty talking again?" He asked but he started to regret it when her face fell.

"More or less," she answered, "I haven't seen much of him, and when we're talking about a guy who has been like my brother since I got here, that hurts." She admitted before blinking as though she were just remembering whom she was talking to. "I'm sorry, I-"

"No, it's ok." Mick cut her off, though, again, he wasn't exactly sure why.

No matter the reason for his words, Amaya beamed at them and chewed slightly on her bottom lip, a sight that shouldn't have been as appealing to Mick as it was.

"So, do you think the others are mad that it was our incident that got us all trapped on that field trip?" She asked; changing the subject and Mick shook his head.

"Nah, and it was my incident. I don't care what Stein says, it's not your job to keep me on a leash." He said and she chuckled,

"You don't need to be on a leash Mick," she insisted and he scoffed, returning his eyes to his work.

Amaya wanted to say more, she really did, but she wasn't quite sure what she would say or even what she could without crossing some type of boundary. So when Mick returned to his vandalism she kept quiet.

* * *

It wasn't unusual for Felicity to skip a class or two throughout the day, especially when it came to her math class. She was good at math and had already mastered most of the material, so needless to say the class often left her bored. She took to walking the halls of the school during this time but the key to that is not getting caught, therefor when she saw Mr. Hunter rounding a corner for the third time she knew he would drag her back to her class so she quickly ducked into the girl's bathroom.

Her only intention going into the bathroom was to wait out until Mr. Hunter passed by and she was safe to leave and head down to the first floor, but then she heard the strangled gasp coming from the first and only occupied stall. Glancing over at it with a quizzical look she noticed the bag on the ground inside it, and of course she would know that bag anywhere.

"Caitlin?" She asked and received no answer, just silence. "Caitlin it's Felicity, are you ok?" She asked carefully.

"Yeah," Caitlin squeaked from inside the stall but judging by the sound of her voice she was very far from ok. Not to mention that one little peek at the gap between the floor and the stall door showed her pants not bunched up in the least around her ankles, meaning that whatever reason it was that she was in there it wasn't to use the bathroom.

Felicity sighed, tipping her head back and pacing in a small circle as she tried to determine the best course of action here. Meanwhile Caitlin remained silent, probably hoping that the goth would just leave.

"Ok, I'm coming in." Felicity decided and before Caitlin could protest she dropped to the ground and crawled underneath the stall door.

Inside Caitlin was sitting on the toilet, thought as Felicity suspected her pants were completely on and she wasn't in there to use the bathroom. Instead she was leaning forward, her elbows resting on her knees and her head in her hands, but what scared Felicity the most was how the girl barely even flinched when she crawled underneath the stall.

There were tears in her eyes, but she didn't look like she was necessarily crying. Instead her eyes were distant as they stared vacantly ahead, not really seeming to see anything.

"Are you ok?" Felicity asked but the only answer that she received was a shaky intake of breath from the girl. "Hey," she continued, now squatting to be eye level with her friend. "What's wrong?" She asked but Caitlin still didn't respond. "Hey, you can tell me." She assured her and Caitlin nodded, opened her mouth, closed her mouth again, and opened it again.

"I'm sorry," she apologized, "I'm not good at talking."

"It's ok," Felicity assured her, "Take your time." She prompted and Caitlin nodded.

"Ronnie…" she trailed off, "He… wants to take me out again." She confessed.

"What? That's great!" The goth exclaimed, "Isn't that great?" She asked, seeing the panic still on Caitlin's face. "I mean you said your date the other night went really well, I thought you really liked him?"

"I do," Caitlin assured her friend.

"Then what's the problem?" Felicity asked and Caitlin took a minute to breathe before answering.

"I think I'm better off alone." She admitted, "I… I don't know how to date; I'm not good at it. I… I know that Ronnie isn't trying to hurt me, but he could have any girl in school… and he'll figure that out and-"

Felicity cut off her friend's rant by reaching forward and pulling her into an embrace, and the force with which Caitlin gripped her shoulders was all the proof that the younger girl needed to realize just how serious this was for her friend. She couldn't help but wonder, as Caitlin cried into her shoulder, just what had happened to her. Being two years younger and having gone to different schools than Caitlin, Felicity hadn't met her until she was enrolled in the mentor program. She knew the girl was shy, could guess that she had been picked on as a little kid, and based on her visit to her house it was obvious that she and her mother aren't exactly close. But this was a level of fear that Felicity hadn't realized Caitlin was at the point of, and one that she knew all too well.

"Listen to me," she said softly before pulling just far enough out of the embrace that she could look the older girl in the eyes. "Ronnie likes you. He is not out of your league or too good for you or anything like that. Even if things don't work out it's not going to be because he'll have found someone better, ok a person like that does not exist. This stupid social food chain of high school is a joke Caitlin, seriously, it doesn't actually exist. Trust me, if it did Vic and Helena would not be a couple." She joked and that did earn a laugh from Caitlin. "You don't have to earn any type of status to deserve happiness." She insisted and a small smile broke through Caitlin's tears. "Ok?" Felicity continued and Caitlin nodded. "Good, now I'm not going to make you go out with Ronnie again. But I think it would be a really good idea."

"Ok," Caitlin said with another nod and Felicity smiled.

"Ok," she said while rising to her feet. "Now, take a few minutes, calm down, and come ditch class with me." She ordered with a smirk, earning a giggle from her red-faced friend.

"No," she insisted.

"Come on, have some fun." Felicity begged.

"Hey, I'm going on a second date. That's all the fun you're going to get me to have for one day." Caitlin joked and Felicity chuckled.

"Fair enough," she said, letting herself out of the stall.

* * *

Agent Nelson showed up around four in order to collect the Snart siblings, informing Leonard privately in the hall that the couple in Keystone had accepted the request to foster Lisa and, while there could be no guarantees, he was confident that once Lewis's parental rights had been terminated they would proceed with adopting her.

"Now the question is, do you want me to tell?" He asked but Leonard shook his head.

"No, I'll tell her." He argued and Nelson nodded, so the two of them headed back into the Lance apartment.

You could've cut the tension in that apartment with machete.

Sara was standing against the counter and watching the door, her mother rifling through various cabinets behind her and pretending to be looking for something to make for supper. Lisa was nowhere in sight, as she had been told to go to Sara's room and pack her bag. Sara looked at Len, her eyes asking what her mouth would not. He answered her with his own eyes, and briefly wondered just when it was that the two of them began communicating without words.

But he didn't have the time to wonder about that. Instead he solemnly marched himself to Sara's room and prayed to any God that there may be that he could get through this conversation without breaking down.

Opening the door he found Lisa sitting quietly on Sara's bed, though she looked up and ran to him when he entered. He bent down and picked her up, his movements almost robotic as he lifted her into his arms and crossed over to the bed and set her down in her previous seat.

"What's happening Lenny?" She asked in that tiny and oh so innocent voice of hers, Len sighed and tried to find an answer to her question.

"Dad's going back to jail Lisa," he said first and it almost disturbed him how unsurprised she seemed by that. "And even when he gets out, we're not going back to him." She tilted her head at that, but didn't exactly look to be upset by the news.

"But grandpa died," she stated matter-of-factly, "Where are we going?"

"Well… you know what adoption is right?" He asked and she nodded before her face grew positively horror stricken.

"We're going to an orphanage!?" She exclaimed but Leonard shook his head, although with him going into a group home she wasn't entirely wrong.

"No," he promised her, "Agent Nelson knows some very nice people in Keystone City, you're going to stay with them while all the paperwork for dad going to jail is filled out, and after that there is a very good chance that they are going to be your new mommy and daddy." He told her gently but Lisa is a smart little girl and she picked up on her brother's lack of mentioning himself.

"You mean  _our_ new mommy and daddy, right?" She asked but when Leonard only sighed the tears began to form in her eyes. "Right?"

"Here's the thing Lisa," he began, "When people adopt kids, that's what they want; a kid. Either a kid or a baby, not a teenager. Now these people have a baby boy already, so you're going to be the big sister now. You've always wanted a baby brother or sister, right?" He asked but Lisa only sniffled.

"I want you!" She cried suddenly, "I want you. Where… where are you going?" She questioned and he sighed.

"I am going to an orphanage," he told her, knowing she wouldn't see the difference between a group home and the buildings that she's seen in movies.

She gasped at the news. "No!" She cried, "No, I want you to come with me!"

"I can't," he insisted,

"Then I want to go with you!" She amended, "I don't want a new mommy and daddy, not if they don't want you! I don't want a new brother! I want my brother!" She sobbed, slipping quickly into a full-blown tantrum as she pounded on the mattress. "I want to stay here! I want to… I want run away! I don't care! I just… I… just…just…" She cut herself off with her sobs and it took nearly all of Leonard's self control to keep his own tears at bay. This wasn't exactly an ideal situation for him either.

"Lisa-" He tried, reaching out towards her but she jerked away from him.

"NO!" She screamed, "No! I don't want to go! I'm not going!" She resisted and in the end it was a lot of crying, kicking, punching, screaming, and wrestling, but eventually Leonard dragged his sister out to the living room where they both said goodbye to Sara and her mother, and then they left.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Again, gold star to anyone who can identify Sara's movie! I know these references were just as vague as the last, but once again I will tell you that it stars one of the Legends!


	17. Field Trip!

On the morning of the field trip all eight of the kids reported to the outside of the auditorium just as they had been instructed to.

"And Stein's late as usual," Felicity drawled, arms folded and body leaning against the concrete wall behind her.

"Give her a break, she has a lot of things to deal with." Caitlin scolded halfheartedly.

"Like what?" Helena scoffed, "She's a counselor, not a teacher. She doesn't have papers to grade or anything."

"No but she does have paper work to fill out for things like this and then there's advisory work, and-"

"Alright," Mick all but snapped, cutting Victor off and while the red headed boy clamped his mouth shut his girlfriend fixed the mentor program's newest inmate with a hard and offended glare of her own. "We get it," he finished and while Helena still looked royally pissed Victor put a hand on her arm to keep her from doing anything too brash.

Leonard, despite how he normally would be on high alert during any conversation that included both Helena and Mick, was standing quietly off to the side. Mick and Sara both knew why, and were trying to give him space. He had been through a lot in the past few weeks, and was just starting to look them in the eyes again; talking would be the next step.

"Hello kids!" The cheery and frazzled voice of Mrs. Stein called out to them and the eight looked to see the woman hurrying her way down the hall, a mess of papers in her hands as usual but a pleasant lack of suitcase. "So sorry I'm late, I had to go all the way up to the third floor to get the keys for the school van." She explained, "But we're all set so let's move out to the parking lot!" She exclaimed and waved for them to follow as she turned around and made for the door. The group followed obediently, wondering who exactly handed the keys for the school van over to the scatterbrained Mrs. Stein, and what the odds were they would get in an accident today.

* * *

They began filing into the van but only Caitlin, Amaya, and Victor had gotten on when they suddenly stopped in their tracks.

"Um…" Caitlin trailed off and Amaya peered over her shoulder before rolling her eyes at the sight before her.

"Mrs. Stein?" She asked, leaning back and effectively backing up Victor as well. "We have a slight problem."

"What problem?" The exasperated woman asked and the look on her face was as though Amaya had just kicked a puppy.

The two girls glanced at each other before stepping off the bus so that their chaperone could get by and see the problem for herself. But, knowing that she might not realize at first, Caitlin followed her on.

The van was set up in the style of a school bus, two rows of seats on the right side and one on the left with a large empty space behind it for transporting equipment.

"There are three rows of seats." Caitlin deadpanned, "That's six seats, and there's eight of us." She continued and Mrs. Stein visibly deflated.

"Not a problem," Felicity's voice came from behind the two, she had climbed onto the stairway and was looking to see what the hold up was. "We do three to a seat all the time on my bus." She said and Mrs. Stein looked a little worried at that suggestion, but eventually conceded that they didn't have any other options.

"We better not get pulled over." She muttered under her breath while exiting the bus.

With little more than a few skeptical glances at each other the teenagers began filing on and claiming seats. Caitlin and Felicity went and sat in the second row on the right side, Victor and Helena claiming the seat in front of them. On the opposite side of the bus Leonard and Mick claimed the bench. That left Sara and Amaya without seats and one look at the scowls on the faces of their mentees warned either of them against trying to share with them. So Amaya moved first and claimed the edge of Felicity and Caitlin's seat while Sara moved to do the same with Victor and Helena, but the purple clad girl seemed to have a better idea and jumped into her boyfriend's lap. Sara sat down with a roll of her eyes, but at least she wasn't falling off the edge like Amaya was behind her.

Mrs. Stein, once she was settled in the driver's seat of the van, looked over her shoulder at the seating arrangement and made a mental note to speak with the principal about a fundraiser for a new van.

But with a shake of her head she started them on their way to the University. It wasn't going to be a far trip, about twenty minutes or so, but that didn't mean that she was going to stand for the lack of noise coming from the back.

"You kids are here for bonding time remember, talk to each other or I'll drag you on more of these." She threatened and the eight looked at each other, slightly surprised by the older woman's tone.

"Alright well somebody say something," Mick said after a few more seconds of silence.

"Like what?" Sara asked, "I don't think Stein really wants to hear about the things teenagers normally talk about." She said and the others all made various faces of agreement, before a devilish smirk crossed Felicity's face.

"Hey Mrs. Stein?" She called and Caitlin's eyes widened a little with panic when it became apparent that her mentee wasn't running whatever crazy plan she had come up with by them.

"Yes Felicity?" Mrs. Stein called back,

"Do we have to talk, or can we sing a road song?" She asked and anyone who was previously looking at her with worry had now replaced those looks with ones that said she was insane.

"I don't sing," Mick insisted firmly,

"Ditto," Leonard agreed.

"Oh, that could be fun!" Mrs. Stein exclaimed, either not hearing or completely ignoring the group's resident jailbirds. Meanwhile Felicity's grin grew even wickeder.

"One hundred bottles of beer on the wall, one hundred bottles of beer…" the goth began and the others slowly joined in, still a little unsure of her evil plan.

"No, no any other song!" Stein called up from the front and now that they understood that this was about payback for dragging them all here for "bonding time" the others sang louder. "At least say pop!" Stein ordered but no one listened, and the eight teenagers sang about alcohol until the reached seventy-nine bottles upon arriving at the University.

Once parked Mrs. Stein looked over her shoulder at the kids, many of who were still laughing at the annoying song they had just tortured her with.

"I want all of you on your best behavior today," she said firmly, "Once we get off this bus we're heading straight for the university library, we're supposed to meet our tour guide there. After that we're going to the cafeteria for lunch and then it's right back on the bus and straight back to school. I don't want any trouble from any of you, understood?" She asked and she was met with chorus of answers ranging from "yes ma'am," to "no promises".

They got off the bus and began heading across the parking lot, following Mrs. Stein to the library. There was a dark skinned boy standing outside of the rather large building, he was wearing a tour guide shirt and smiled upon seeing the group approaching, he was obviously waiting for them.

"Mrs. Stein?" He asked their chaperone with a smile as they approached and she smiled back at him, offering him her hand, which he accepted in a friendly shake.

"Hello, thank you so much for showing us around." The older woman gushed.

"No problem," the boy assured her before turning to the rest of the group. "Hi, my name is James Olson, I'm a senior communication major here with a concentration in journalism. I'm also president of the photography club and assistant director of student activities, which is how I ended up as your tour guide today. Well that and I don't have any classes today so I'm the only one who had enough free time." He introduced himself, "So, what year are you guys?" He asked and in response he received a mix of answers that included everything but senior. "Ok so most of you still have some time before applying to college. That's good, but you can't start looking too early…" He kept talking but by this point none of the teenagers were really listening. Before they knew it James was leading them into the library and rambling off facts about it and the school that none of them really cared to know, well except for maybe Victor who was hanging onto every word that the older boy said.

"What's with the new job?" Leonard eventually murmured to his best friend when the two of them found themselves at the back of the group and far enough behind that they wouldn't be overheard.

"What?" Mick asked, taken off guard by the question.

"The job," Len repeated coldly, "Since when do you care enough to go get one?" He demanded and Mick couldn't help it but to look ahead at Amaya, an almost longing look in his eyes.

"Just… don't want to go back to Juvie." He lied and of course Leonard saw right through it.

"Bullshit," he called, "Don't forget Mick that Juvie is where I met you, you were perfectly content there." He said and Mick wanted to argue, but he couldn't.

He was content in Juvie. He was just fine with living his life between his cell and the common area there were herded into for a few hours a day. He accepted that it might be how he was set to spend the remainder of his life before he inevitably did something stupid enough to land him in the chair.

But then he looked at Amaya again.

Was he content in Juvie? Yeah, he was.

But happy? Happy was a whole other story.

"Get your head out of your ass Leonard," he said almost as coldly as his friend had spoken.

"Excuse me?" The other boy demanded but Mick kept a straight face.

"You heard me," he said, "You made the choice to give your sister half a shot, and if you want to feel sorry for yourself that's fine. But don't try and drag me down with you." He said before hurrying to catch up with the others, leaving Len to stare after him.

* * *

As the group moved on from the library and into the science building Caitlin took notice of the way Felicity was lingering in many of the rooms, specifically the computer labs. The young goth was practically mesmerized by the new model tech surrounding them, her eyes darting from computer to computer despite the fact that they were all the same model.

It gave Caitlin an idea.

"Hello," A new voice greeted them as they entered an empty lecture hall, a white haired man approaching them and giving Mrs. Stein a welcoming hug.

"Kids, this is my husband Martin." The counselor introduced once she pulled out of the hug and the group gave the man a mix of murmured greetings.

"Hello," he said to them, "You have no idea how ecstatic I am that my wife here finally took my advice to bring you children to see the University!"

"So you're the reason we're stuck here?" Leonard drawled from the back of the group and while Mrs. Stein looked horrified at his words both Mick and Sara face palmed.

"No," Helena, of all people and yet unsurprisingly, spoke up before anyone else could scold the freshman. "We're stuck here because Rory gave Nate Heywood a black eye at the picnic."

"I had a good reason," Mick defended instinctively.

"Which was what?" Helena demanded fiercely but, realizing he had already said too much, Mick clamped his mouth shut. Suddenly the entire group was quiet, none of them daring to so much as breathe, and each silently wondering if someone was going to throw a punch right here and now.

"They certainly are an interesting group, aren't they?" Martin Stein whispered into his wife's ear and she frowned, already trying to figure out what she would later say to Leonard and Helena.

* * *

As promised lunch was the last stop on their tour, and after Mrs. Stein scolded Leonard and Helena for their rude behavior earlier the group ate in silence.

Which, of course, was the exact opposite of the point of all this.

"Amaya, how's your training going?" The older woman asked and as a result snapped Amaya to attention, the girl inwardly cursing herself for not initiating some conversation with someone earlier.

"Fine," she replied dutifully, "The Junior Olympics are at the end of next month so it's getting close, but we'll be ready." She promised and Stein smiled.

"I heard they're being held in Star City this year, is that right?" The woman asked and Amaya nodded. "Are you excited?" She asked and again Amaya nodded.

"Yes, I'm very excited." She gave her standard, robotic, answer. Of course she is excited, who wouldn't be? It's just that she's also nervous about the competition.

"You know, I've never known much about the Junior Olympics. So I started doing some research the other day, I was surprised at how cheap the tickets are." Mrs. Stein gushed and Amaya nodded but didn't say a word. None of the other teens spoke either, all eyes on their counselor with dread as if they were watching the gears turn inside of her head.

"It's nowhere near as big as the actual Olympics," Amaya awkwardly reasoned and Stein nodded.

"Well given how today went I'd say you all need to spend a little more time together as a group, and I can't think of a better way than going on a trip to support one of your own. So why don't we do a bake sale or something to raise money for a hotel and we'll go on an overnight to Star City?" She suggested and at first all eight teenagers just stared at her, wondering if maybe she had completely lost her mind.

"Do we have a choice?" Len finally spoke up and Stein smiled.

"Of course you do Leonard-"

"Then I'll pass," he interrupted.

"But remember that your participation in this club goes on the record that I have to hand to the principal at the end of the year." She reminded and Len sighed, they really didn't have a choice.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So apparently a day pass for the Junior Olympics is $15.00, just saying that before anyone tries telling me this overnight trip idea is far fetched (which it probably is but hey, this is fan fiction!)


	18. Thank You For All You've Done

"Leonard?" Sara asked when she opened the door to the apartment after hearing a knock, surprised to see her peer mentee on the other side.

"Can I come in?" He asked uncomfortably and she nodded, it had only been a few hours since their, arguably disastrous, field trip to the University.

"Of course," she murmured ushering him inside.

"Leonard!" Dinah Lance exclaimed when she saw the boy; she was sitting at the kitchen table with her laptop in front of her and looking at the boy over the rim of her glasses. "How are you doing?"

"I'm fine Mrs. Lance, thank you, for everything. With Lisa's tantrum I'm not sure I said it before, but thank you." He said and the older woman smiled sweetly at him.

"Of course Leonard, you're very welcome." She said and he nodded, before looking over at the younger of the Lance women and then, thinking better of it, back to her mother. "Can I talk to Sara alone for a minute?" He requested and, again with a smile, Mrs. Lance nodded in approval.

"Of course, go ahead." She approved, gesturing behind her to the hallway that led to the bedrooms.

The two teenagers nodded their thanks at her understanding and headed for the room that they both knew the path to by heart. Once inside Sara shut the door behind them and gestured for Leonard to take a seat on her bed before sitting herself down beside him.

"What's up?" She asked and he grunted at the words, then he was silent, and she waited patiently for the words to come to him.

"Mick told me to pull my head out of my ass today," he finally admitted and Sara took a second or two to digest that.

"Yeah," she eventually said, "I've been waiting for that too." She admitted and, understandably surprised, Len fixed her with an incredulous glare; to which she rolled her eyes.

"Not for the same reasons I'm assuming Mick said it," she admitted. "Look, I'm not going to say that Mick doesn't get it, because as far as foster care goes I know he has some experience. That's a part of your situation I don't have insight on. But I do understand how it feels to be ripped away from your sister, even if it was a choice. I'm supposed to be your mentor Leonard, I'm supposed to help you when you need it, so let me." She said firmly but Len didn't respond, just continued staring at his lap. "Please," Sara nearly begged after a few seconds. "Come on, I need help with this just as much as you do, and there's no one else I can go to! I can't talk to my mom because it just makes her feel guilty, I can't call Laurel because… well like I said the divorce was messy, and we didn't exactly leave on good terms. I can't call my dad because he'll just feel guilty. I don't have any other friends who-" She was cut off by Len all but crashing his weight into her, clinging tightly to her frame as sobs began ripping out of his throat.

Sara staggered at first under the surprise of his weight on her body, but she quickly recovered and wrapped her arms around him. They were positioned just a tad awkwardly, Leonard hunched over with his head pressed into her shoulder and her arms around him so that she could run her fingers through his closely cropped dark hair.

"I miss her," He eventually got out through his tears.

"Shh… I know." Sara whispered to him, a tear or two of her own falling from her eyes. "I know."

* * *

"What's this?" Mick asked Iris West, the only one of his co-workers he actually knows, when she approached him forty minutes after closing and handed him five crumpled one dollar bills.

"Your tips," she replied plainly, her lifelong distaste for him showing through perfectly clear in her voice. "We pool tips between everyone on the shift, even those who stay in the back." She further explained when he was still looking at her like she had two heads.

"Thank," he muttered, pocketing the money and turning back to his last coffee pot of the night that needed cleaning.

Iris didn't walk away, just stayed where she was watching him. He didn't look at her; if she wanted to say something to him she had every right.

"What are you doing here?" She finally asked in an exhausted voice, one that said she didn't want to hear any smartass remarks.

"Same as you," he replied with a shrug, "Trying to make some extra money." He said and she rolled her eyes, apparently the truth qualified as a smartass remark.

"Did you really punch Nate Heywood a couple of weeks ago?"

"What do you think?" Mick snorted and Iris leveled one of her famous glares with him, something that had clearly only gotten stronger in the two years that he was gone.

"I think you used to hang Barry from the jungle gym by using a shoe lace to tie his belt loop to the top." She deadpanned and Mick snickered at his old antics.

"The best time was when he got down by leaving his pants up there," he reminisced and Iris knocked the coffee pot from his hands, letting him know that she was far from amused.

He picked it up silently, her eyes still staring him down and waiting for him to give her a good enough reason for his being here. He finished washing the coffee pot first, taking his sweet time with it. Only once he finally put it on the drying wrack, unplugged the drain in the sink, and turned off the water, did he turn to face her.

"What do you want from me?" He asked; folding his arms across his chest and for the first time it was looking like Iris might at a loss for words. "Huh?" He continued when she didn't answer. "What do you want? Do you want me to go apologize to your boyfriend for the things I did when we were little kids? Do you want me to promise you that I'm not doing anything illegal with the money I make working here? Do you want me to promise you that I won't burn this place down?" He snapped and Iris's eyes remained downcast.

"I'm sorry," she mumbled but Mick scoffed, "I am." She insisted.

"Yeah right," he denied, "I've been in this world long enough; people like me don't get sorry." He mocked but Iris met his eyes with determination.

"I'm. Sorry." She spelt it out for him, "You're right, all that was a long time ago, you don't owe me anything." She went on but Mick just looked at her, his moth begging to shout some sort of insult about her high and mighty self-righteousness in her face but biting his tongue.

She walked away, and it wasn't exactly a victory in the eyes of the boy, but it's a start.

* * *

"Have you been avoiding me?" Amaya asked when Nate brushed up against her locker one morning. Ever since she last told him to back off of Mick she had barely seen or spoken to her friend, and not entirely by her own choice.

"A little," The boy said with a shrug, "Look, I've thought about what you said, and you're right." He admitted and Amaya eyed him curiously, it's not normally like him to admit when he's wrong. "I am still angry over things that happened a long time ago, I'll try and be more open-minded about Mick." He promised and Amaya smiled as she shut her locker.

"That's all I ask," she said before walking off, but the sound of footsteps hurrying after her had her turning her head to see Nate rush up next to her; apparently their conversation was not yet over.

"So, uh, they're playing a special presentation of the  _Wizard of Oz_ at the movies tomorrow night, their classic movie of the week. Want to go?" He asked and Amaya thought on it for a minute, mentally going through her schedule for tomorrow.

"I have work at the hospital until six," she reminded him but he shrugged.

"Movie starts at seven, only takes about a half hour to get there from the hospital. I'll pick you up there and bring your clothes, you can change in the back of the car." He suggested and Amaya snorted at the idea.

"Your parents are actually going to let you drive their car to the movies without one of them?" She asked skeptically, she knew all too well that Nate just getting his license had been a huge battle in the Heywood household.

"As long as you're with me, I think they'll be ok." He answered with a shrug and a grin. Amaya rolled her eyes, fairly confident that these plans would go to hell at the last minute like they almost always do.

"Sure," she agreed.

* * *

"Why am I here?" Felicity demanded in a bored voice when the school day had come to an end and yet she was still in the building. Caitlin had asked her to stay after but even as they two of them walked down the hallway of the first floor refused to say why.

"Think of this as a thank you for setting Ronnie and I up," the older girl replied.

"Ooh, so that's still going well?" Felicity questioned wickedly.

Caitlin rolled her eyes, "yes," she bit out in annoyance and Felicity cackled in laughter, clearly proud of herself for making her mentor blush with embarrassment.

"Ok, for real though, where are we going?" The goth asked a little more caringly when her friend took her down a hallway in the back of the school, behind the cafeteria where she had never before seen anyone really go.

They stopped briefly in front of what looked like a classroom door, but when Caitlin turned the handle it opened into a dimly lit hallway that looked much older than the rest of the school. Felicity eyed the hallway skeptically but followed Caitlin, who was marching with an unusually urgent pace, down it.

"What the hell? Where even are we?" She demanded, glancing wildly all around the hall, "Are you bringing me to some kind of cult?" She asked, "How bad could your last date have been?" She demanded just as Caitlin turned left around a corner and stopped in front of another door. "Ok, I'm sorry for setting you up with Ronnie! I'm sorry for meddling and I promise that I will never tell anyone about this! Can we please just-"

"Felicity!" Caitlin cut off the panicking girl, "I'm not mad at you." She promised,

"You're not?" Felicity asked and Caitlin laughed as she shook her head.

"No, Ronnie and I are great. And to answer your earlier question this is not a cult, well… not exactly." She explained but Felicity was, understandably, barely reassured by those words.

"What do you mean?" She asked and with a smirk Caitlin opened the door to the classroom.

Inside the room there were five kids, all of whom looked over at the door when it opened. There was also Ms. McGee, the very strict science and technology teacher. Felicity recognized three of the students, one being Cisco and the other two boys whom she had seen hanging around with him and Caitlin. The other two, an African American boy with an Afro and a skinny girl with wavy dark hair, she didn't know.

"Felicity, welcome to the tech club." Caitlin said smugly.

Speechless, which is something rare for the snarky freshman, Felicity looked back and forth between Caitlin and the people in the room.

"What?" she finally asked but before Caitlin could answer Cisco approached them.

"Ok everybody," he announced, gently grabbing Felicity by the arm and dragging her in while she looked wildly between him and Caitlin, probably trying to decide who she was going to kill first. "This is Felicity, our newest member-"

"What? No! I did not ask to be here!"

"Felicity this is Barry and Winn," Cisco went on as though she hadn't said anything, gesturing to the two boys who were familiar to her. "Curtis, and Gideon." He continued, pointing over to the two students she hadn't recognized.

Felicity glanced back over her shoulder to yell at Caitlin only to find that the door was closed and the older girl was gone.

She was  _so_ going to get her back for this.

* * *

"I thought it was strange enough that you went out got a job," Lyla said to Mick when she walked into the living room to find her foster son sitting in front of the TV. "But then I went through the computer history and found somebody has been looking at plane tickets to and from West Africa." She continued accusingly, Mick watching her carefully as she claimed the seat beside him. "It's not Jonny or me, you planning a trip?"

"Why are you going through the Internet history?" Mick asked and Lyla gave him a small, understanding, smile.

"I couldn't find this Sesame Street video that I showed the kids the other day, thought maybe I could find it there." She explained, "Now, of all places to run away to, why West Africa?" She asked and Mick avoided her eyes, unable to think of a suitable lie.

"I'm not running away," he admitted.

"Then what are you doing?" She asked and he was quiet at first, not really sure what she would think once he came clean.

"I'm trying to get Amaya's mom out here for the Junior Olympics." He admitted and Lyla furrowed her brow.

"What?" She asked and finally Mick met her gaze.

"Amaya's mom still lives in Zembesi. She hasn't seen her since she moved here a year ago; all the kids at that competition are going to have their whole families cheering them on, except her. She's going to have her coach and the mentoring club because Stein is forcing them to go. I know it's not no one but… it's not the same." He said, the beginnings of unshed tears starting in his eyes and Lyla nodded silently.

"Ok," she eventually said, "Well you seem to be doing pretty good ticket wise, and the tickets into the actual event are cheap enough. So you keep doing what you're doing, take care of the tickets, and Jonny and I will help you with putting her in a hotel."

Mick eyed her skeptically at first, was she joking?

"Why?" He finally asked and she shrugged,

"That's what parents do."


	19. Unpredictable

"What are you thinking about?" John Diggle asked his wife as he placed a kiss to her temple. It was getting late but he couldn't sleep, not when he could practically feel the gears turning in Lyla's head as she lay with her back to him.

Knowing that her husband wasn't buying her sleeping act, Lyla rolled herself onto her back and looked up at him leaning over her.

"Six months Jonny," she finally said, "We were granted custody of Mick for six months."

He frowned and sighed as he settled next to her, "And it's almost been four." He thought aloud and she nodded.

They were both silent for some time, each thinking through what their next move could be.

"You were right," John finally said and Lyla tilted her head to look at him.

"Hm?"

"You were right," Her husband repeated, "He needs a family."

* * *

_Looking into work after the military John and Lyla both knew that they wanted to stay in the field of helping people, and somehow that landed them both in social services. They worked with the more troubled members of society, usually helping with reintegrating prisoners into society upon being released. Every once and awhile they crossed paths with the foster system, usually dealing with a parent being released from incarceration and seeking custody of their kids._

_This was not one of those cases._

_Mick Rory, aged sixteen years old. He had been arrested and incarcerated into a Juvenile detention center two years ago at the age of fourteen under the charge of arson. He never confessed, never denied the charges either, just remained quiet throughout the whole trial according to his papers. Supposedly he was responsible for his house burning to the ground with his parents inside; needless to say they died._

_With Mick's release scheduled for next week the Diggles, having been assigned to his case, went into a meeting with the boy's social worker, the warden, the prison psychologist, and a judge to decide his fate._

_"Mick's spent most of his time here keeping to himself, except for the few occasions where he's been involved in fights." Warden Flag reported, the clear disappointment in his eyes letting it be known that he doesn't hold a particularly high standard for Mick._

_"I finished my psychological evaluation of the boy yesterday," Professor Hugo Strange, the prison psychiatrist, reported. "It's my understanding that he fears his pyromania and his own actions, I would advise against approving him for adoption."_

_"So we're just going to let him bounce around the system until he ages out?" The social worker, Ms. Spivot, demanded._

_"That will only take less than two years," Strange interjected uncaringly, Spivot didn't look too pleased with his indifference._

_"No, we're not trying to fulfill the stereotypes of the system here Strange." John said firmly, before Spivot could say something that she might regret. "We're not just going to do what's easiest to wash our hands of this kid."_

_"I'm sorry Mr. Diggle, are you the one who has seen the boy on a weekly basis for the past two years?" Strange snapped._

_"Alright enough!" The judge, otherwise known as judge Amanda Waller, interjected and you could bet that if she had her gavel on her it would've come down hard on the table. "Hugo has spent the most time with the boy, if it's his opinion that he's too dangerous to be placed with a family, I'll respect his judgment. There is a military training facility that's taken juvenile's from us before, I'm confident that Mick Rory will be a good candidate for them." She said and the suggestion was met a chorus of nods, expect for John and Lyla who looked at each other nervously._

_They had both done their time in the army, both met people who went in there under circumstances not unlike those of this boy._

_"Your honor," Lyla began, "With all due respect I have seen people go into the military under these circumstances; it either helps them or it makes them irreversibly worse. That's an awful big gamble to take on a teenage boy. He needs a family."_

_"Well, Mrs. Diggle," judge Waller said with a look of warning in her eyes. "I think it's already been established that Mick is too dangerous for foster care, and no offence but I can't offhand think of many parents who would be willing to bring a child with such a history of violence into their home, and I certainly can't lie to them." She warned and that was when any other person would've backed down. But Lyla Diggle isn't any other person, and the gears were already turning in her head._

_"We'll take him," she stated simply and everyone around the table, including her husband, looked at her as if she were insane._

_But she held her head high, daring the judge to question her decision. She only broke eye contact to glance over at John, who still looked to be more at a loss than anyone but she saw it in his eyes that he wasn't going to stop her._

_"No offence Mrs. Diggle," Waller finally said, "You and your husband are only recently registered as foster parents, and it's my understanding that you have two young toddlers of your own. Are you sure that you're willing to risk their lives by bringing, and lets not lie to ourselves here, a future serial arsonist into your home?" She questioned almost smugly._

_"We wouldn't be risking their lives," It wasn't Lyla who spoke this time, but John. "Lyla and I are both former Special Forces, if Mick tried anything the two of us could stop him just as fast as anyone in a military academy." He promised and Waller nodded._

_"Very well," she agreed, "I will release the boy into your custody for six months, after that time we will revisit this case. We'll see how he has progressed or declined during his time with you, and determine our next move from there." She decided and when no one argued the decision was finalized, and the Diggles were left wondering about what they had just done._

* * *

"Do you think they'll still try and send him to military school?" Lyla asked after she and her husband had laid there in a heavy silence for more than long enough.

"I bet they'll try," he answered, "Might try to put him in a group home when military school doesn't fly." He said; he was so sure that the two of them were on the same page that he didn't even have to ask the burning question on both their minds.

Lyla smiled and clasped her husband's hand in her own. He gave it a reassuring squeeze,

"Are we insane?" She asked and he chuckled,

"Probably," he answered before leaning back up on his elbow and over to kiss her. "But the last insane thing we did has worked out pretty well so far." He teased and Lyla smirked.

"The first or second time we got married?" She asked and he smirked.

"Second," he promised, leaning down and giving her another kiss.

"She won't let me near her!" Kendra Saunders-Hall exclaimed in frustration as she returned, yet again, to the bedroom of her and her husband after another failed attempt to console their new foster daughter.

"She just needs time," Carter, her husband, insisted for the hundredth time and, also for the hundredth time, Kendra rolled her eyes and began mentally questioning more than a few of her life choices.

Lisa Snart had been living with them for almost two weeks now and she was proving to be a little terror at every turn. The first few days she was silent, not a single peep out of her but a constantly present pout on her face. Carter had tried taking her hand when Agent Nelson first brought her to them; she refused. Every question she was asked was met with silence for an answer. The only exception to her muteness came after she was put to bed, when she would sob for hours and hours on end. Of course she's sharing a room with Aldus and her inconsolable crying was leaving him in an almost worse state. Once she grew tired of her quiet spells she moved onto endless tantrums. She protested against everything. Getting in the car to go to school was Carter dragging her out the door kicking and screaming. Picking her up from school was her taking off into the busy parking lot before Kendra could stop her, something that had given the woman a heart attack. She would steal Aldus's toys and not give them back, and if she did give them back either they would be broken or she would push him down in the process. She didn't care how many times she was punished either; the hellish behavior would still press on.

"She doesn't need time Carter," Kendra argued for, again, the hundredth time. "She needs her brother." They could still hear Lisa wailing in the next room, and they could only be grateful that one of their friends had offered to take Aldus for a few days if it might help them focus on getting Lisa settled.

"She'll be fine," He promised, reaching out to pull his wife down to him but she pulled away and took to pacing the room.

"Fine?" She demanded, "Have your memories of growing up in the system been altered or something?" She continued, she and Carter had both bounced around the foster system from young ages. It was where they met, became friends, and eventually they got married not too long after aging out. Once they were settled they decided to become foster parents to help some of the kids in the system as best they could.

Sometimes that meant butting heads with each other.

"Do you not remember all the kids who were ripped away from their siblings?" Kendra continued, "I do! They were more broken than anyone! They-"

"What do you want to do Kendra?" Carter cut her off, rising to his feet to meet her gaze.

"You know what I want to do," she said quietly, firmly, meeting his glare with a hard one of her own.

"Kendra," he sighed, "I don't want to force Lisa away from her brother either, but you know that we can't afford a third kid. Especially a teenager." He said and much as she hated to admit it, she knew that he was right.

Lisa's brother would be growing up very soon, and right now they just don't have the money to help a kid finance a car or college or anything like that. Even being sure that the boy probably doesn't have any plans for either of those things right now, what kind of life his that for a kid? He deserves a better chance than two parents who can't provide for him. Not to mention that they don't have the space in the house, what with Lisa already bunking with Aldus, and it'll probably be a few years before they can afford to move to a bigger one.

"They can't live separated like this," she finally said and Carter nodded, understanding that time wasn't going to fix Lisa and they needed to find another solution.

* * *

Carla Tannhauser, or Mrs. Snow as her daughter's friends called her, it seemed Caitlin never told her friends that her mother had returned to using her maiden name, normally had a very predictable routine. She would wake up in the morning twenty minutes after Caitlin had left for school, go down into the kitchen and grab herself a bagel for breakfast along with her morning coffee, get ready for work, go to work, come home and cook dinner, and then the whole cycle would start over again in the morning. Was it perfect? No, not by any means. But it was her predictable life and she liked it that way.

Carla did not do unpredictability. She understands that there are some people who live by never knowing where their lives will next take them, but not her. Only two things in her life had ever been unpredictable. The first one was Charlie's death. She had known that there were risks involved with having twins, but she didn't really have much of a choice. It was discovered halfway through her pregnancy that while Caitlin was just fine, Charlie had a heart condition. They had been certain that he would be able to survive it with surgery, how were they supposed to know that he wouldn't be able to get the surgery in time?

The second event in her life that she hadn't predicted was her husband leaving. Sure they had been fighting, but she never thought that he would leave. At the very least she thought that he loved Caitlin enough to stay in touch.

Ok, so maybe both of these things were somewhere on her radar when they happened, but they weren't things that she exactly enjoyed paying attention to. But this time it was Caitlin who was becoming unpredictable.

Not all that long ago she would return home from work to find her daughter doing her homework at the kitchen table almost every night, and any other nights she was simply watching TV. But lately she didn't know what to expect out of Caitlin. Sometimes she was home, and sometimes she wasn't. Whenever the case was that she wasn't home there was always a note left explaining where she was. Usually it was out with Cisco or Felicity, or especially with this new Ronnie boy whose name was appearing on more and more notes. When she was home she was often on the phone, and while she was keeping up with her homework Carla was noticing that her daughter was getting it done quicker than she used to.

So right now she was alone, pacing through the empty rooms of the house while Caitlin was out with her friends yet again. She didn't know what to make of it, couldn't predict what might come of it.

That was something that did not sit well in the pit of her stomach.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know, where are the kids?!?!?!? Don't worry, they'll all be back in the next chapter! I've just had a bunch of ideas bouncing around my head about scenes with some of the adults that I felt should be in the story, but I was worried they wouldn't find a place in time, so I gave them their own little chapter! You guys have been awesome so far with comments, I hope you like this little change of pace!


	20. The Trip

"You ok?" Leonard whispered to Sara. The two of them had chemistry class together and they were supposed to be working on the latest conversion assignment, but Sara was so zoned out right now that he doubted she had even read the question.

"Huh?" She asked before his words registered, "Oh, I'm fine." She insisted and he rolled his eyes with a sigh.

"Ok, so what have you got?" He asked and she blinked in confusion.

"Uh… sorry, I'm not exactly done with the math, hang on just a sec…" she tried to cover as her eyes began scanning the paper for at least the third time.

"What's wrong?" Len asked and again Sara looked up at him.

"What? Nothing." She tried convincing him with a fake smile but he wasn't buying it.

"I don't suppose that it has anything to do with the fact that we're leaving tomorrow, does it?" He asked and Sara visibly deflated at his deduction, we knew her too well by now.

The weeks had gone by both slowly and quickly since the field trip to the University, and the date on which they would leave for their club weekend in Star City had grown closer and closer. In the weeks since the field trip, since Leonard had shown up at her front door needing to talk to her about his sister, they had grown closer. The group home didn't really care what he did or where he went, so long as he was either back or had called by ten. They made it a weekly thing at her place for him to come over for dinner and afterward they would sit at the kitchen table playing gin or poker or something or other. Dinah made herself scarce most of the time, heading off to her room after dinner to grade papers or whatever it was she had to work on that night. Sometimes they talked about their sisters, other times about their fathers. Sometimes they talked about school and the latest rumors that were spreading around. Len told her about Mick's secret little plan to fly Amaya's mother out to Star City for the competition, the two of them currently had a bet going on how long it would take for something more than friendship to come out of the pairing of those two.

"Big events like that, with cheap tickets, half the teenagers in Star City will decide it's a good place to hang around on a Saturday." The blonde finally answered his question and he nodded.

"Does she know you're going?" He asked, knowing that he wouldn't need to clarify who  _she_ was.

"Nope," Sara huffed, "Neither does dad, and neither do any of my old friends. I'm kind of hoping I can just get through the weekend without any of them ever knowing I was there." She said and Len began chewing on his bottom lip, he would have to play this very carefully.

Over the past few weeks Sara had told him a few more details about how she and Laurel came to the decision that they did regarding custody after their parents divorce. It had been Sara's idea, and at first shot down by Laurel. But then Sara went and made a play for the boy her sister was interested in, and that sent her over the edge. From what he had pieced together he figured that they fought over it, loudly, until Laurel shouted at Sara to "get out". Presumably she was only referring to her bedroom, but the next day at the custody hearing, during which the Lance's were going to no doubt continue arguing over the terms, Sara spoke up and told the judge that she and Laurel were requesting that one of them live with each parent full time. Laurel, from what he knew, hadn't known she would do this but backed her up and went along with the idea, probably because she was still angry. What in the hell got both their parents AND the judge on board with the idea was still lost on him, but apparently it involved a lot of arguing. Anyway, when Sara left with their mother she and Laurel still weren't speaking, and they still haven't.

"What happens if you see her there?" He finally asked and Sara shrugged.

"Don't know," she replied, "Probably run into the nearest bathroom or hide behind you."

He smirked and so did she, a little bit of humor welcome in this serious conversation.

"She's you're sister," he reminded her but again she shrugged.

"She hates me," she insisted.

"Welcome to the club," he argued and she finally met his eyes. "Lisa no doubt knows that I let them separate us, and I'm not allowed to see her again until she's eighteen and can do what she wants, and if you haven't been paying attention that's not for another thirteen years. Now something tells me it'll be a lot easier dealing with a few months of anger than over a decade's worth." He advised and before Sara could say anything the bell rang to dismiss them from class. "Just think about it," Len finished as they gathered their things and headed off their separate ways.

* * *

"Are you excited?" Nate asked from Amaya's bedroom door. They would be leaving in the morning for Star City and she was packing up her suitcase as she turned to him with a small smile on her face.

"Nervous," she answered almost breathlessly, "Nervous but excited." She continued and he smiled back at her while taking a few steps into the room, looking around it at the sky blue walls that were bare aside from a few white shelves, which were filled with knick-knacks from both Zembesi and Central City. He looked at her dresser and the array of jewelry strewn over its surface, along with the few make-up palettes and tubes.

"You know this used to be my room?" He asked and Amaya quirked an eyebrow at him.

"Really?" She asked skeptically, returning to the mess of clothes on her bed that she was trying to sort out and pack. "Henry told me it was the guest room."

"Yeah, but I'm the only one who ever used it." He said and she chuckled,

"Well don't worry, I'll only be here two more months and you can have it back." His face fell at that reminder, he had almost forgotten.

"You're going back to Zembesi?" It wasn't a question, or at least it shouldn't have been, but it came out as one.

"Yeah," Amaya said, once again turning and facing him. "That's always been the plan, besides I couldn't stay even if I wanted to." She continued, her face serious and her foot taking just half a step closer to her friend.

"Why not?" He asked and she frowned.

"I don't have a green card, remember?" She asked, "I have a student visa."

"You could apply for a green card," he suggested and she smiled, though it was one of sympathy.

"There's nothing keeping me here," she sighed, looking up at his disappointed face.

"Nothing?" he asked and she shook her head.

"I mean; I'm going to miss you guys." She promised, "But no, there's nothing here important enough that I need to-" she was cut off by Nate, though not by his words.

He closed the distance between them, his hands on her hips and pulling her close to him. Her eyes closed on instinct, but the moment in which she realized what was happening they opened and her hands moved to Nate's chest, pushing him away from her.

He avoided her eyes once they were separated, looking anywhere but at her.

"I'm sorry," he finally muttered and when she didn't say anything he finally looked up at her, and he wished he hadn't.

The expression on her face was a whole mix of things.

There was hurt, confusion, anger, maybe even a little betrayal. All and all it was definitely not the reaction that one would want after a kiss.

"I'll uh… I'll leave." He dejectedly murmured, turning and stuffing his hands into his pockets as he walked away. He kept waiting for her to say something, be it good or bad he just wanted something from her.

But she never called him back.

* * *

"You know, when we agreed to this, you could've mentioned that it would be a seven hour drive." Helena all but snapped early on Friday morning, when at five a.m. instead of shutting off their alarms and going back to sleep before they would HAVE to wake up, the students of the peer mentoring program were gathering in their counselor's driveway and loading up her and her husband's cars for the trip to Star City.

"I'm more curious about why a woman with only one child drives an SUV," Victor observed as he walked around Mrs. Stein's unexpectedly large car.

"It works very well for moving supplies, like the tables we used for the picnic." Mrs. Stein answered him and he hummed in reply but Helena rolled her eyes, letting the other's know that her boyfriend's response was not meant to be taken as belief.

"So what's the plan for seating arrangements?" Sara asked and Mrs. Stein opened her mouth to answer the question but before she could a car pulled up in front of the house, and out stepped Amaya and Mr. Heywood.

"Amaya?" Mrs. Stein asked, "I thought you were driving down with your team? What are you doing here?"

"Well Courtney brought a friend over at the last minute to ride with us, I was wondering if maybe you guys might have room for Amaya before I tell Courtney's friend she can't come along?" Mr. Heywood explained and Mrs. Stein nodded.

"Of course," she replied, gesturing for Amaya to go join the other kids.

Mick eyed Amaya as she approached the group, as did the others. There was something in her eyes, something that was a mix of relief and maybe fear, and it said that she would rather be with them over her team.

Around the time they got Amaya's suitcase into the car Mr. Heywood was gone and Mrs. Stein was coming back over to them.

"Ok, so Amaya riding with us doesn't change the driving arrangement all that much, in fact I think it's a bit of an improvement." She announced in her usual, overly chipper, voice.

"I already don't like where this is going," Leonard drawled in a warning voice, though there was no real threat behind it.

"Six of you will be riding with me, while two of you are going to have to ride with my husband and Lily." The older woman continued; gesturing over to the other car where her husband was helping their daughter load her rainbow colored suitcase into the trunk.

"Nose goes!" Sara suddenly shouted and in the blink of an eye all eight teenagers were scrambling to place their finger to the tip of their nose.

But there's always one who doesn't register the playground command quite fast enough.

"Aw Vic!" Helena whined when she realized her partner had lost, and thus she would be joining him in the smaller car with the old man and little girl.

Victor just shrugged, it wasn't his fault that Sara had called out a command he hadn't heard since the age of probably seven and therefor wracking his memory for it's meaning had taken too long.

* * *

They had been on the road for about an hour now and, since it was still dark out and most of them had been up since around four in the morning, most of Mrs. Stein's car was asleep and those who weren't were quiet. Leonard and Sara were sitting in the way back of the car, i.e. the second row of back seats that could fold up and down to make more room in the trunk. Len was awake, but Sara had spent the majority of the past hour slipping in and out of consciousness. She finally fell asleep with her head leaning back, but eventually her body started slipping to the side and Leonard knew it would only be a matter of seconds before she would fall over sideways and awake. Before he could think twice he had his hands gently on her arms to try and push her back but it was too late and she began waking up.

"Shh…" He whispered to her, "Go back to sleep."

"What's the point?" she murmured tiredly, "Won't last long." She said through a yawn and Len sighed before, instead of reclaiming his hands, he began to shift his own position slightly and pull her towards him.

They would both claim it was only because she was exhausted, but she went with him as he guided her to lean her head against his shoulder. He was now stuck with his arm around her, an aspect of this that he didn't think through, but she was already asleep the minute that her head settled into the crook of his neck. He briefly considered trying to move his arm without waking her, but he knew that would be impossible. Besides, she looked so peaceful and she had been helping him so much in the past few weeks. He could put up with the pins and needles in his arm.

Meanwhile, up ahead of Len and Sara in the actual back seat, Amaya was sitting sandwiched between and sleeping Mick and a waking Felicity.

"That's a pretty sight," the goth commented as she woke, sarcasm lacing her every word as her eyes landed on Mick.

Amaya looked over and chuckled, her mentee was slouched over with his head pressed against the window and his mouth parted slightly as he slept.

"I don't know; he kind of looks sweet. You almost forget how angry he usually is." She mused, and it was true. Sound asleep, Mick looked almost peaceful, not quite, but enough that he looked relaxed for once in his life.

Turning back to Felicity Amaya noticed something was different about the younger girl.

"I didn't know you wore glasses?" She asked, taking in the thin black frames over the goth's eyes.

"Hm?" Felicity hummed, having almost forgotten that she was wearing her glasses. "Oh yeah, I overslept and didn't have time to put my contacts in. Therefor I also didn't have time to pack them, so it's glasses for the next few days for me."

"Well, they look good on you." Amaya said and Felicity smiled.

"Thanks," she said quietly.

* * *

After many hours of driving the two cars finally made it to Star City and pulled into the parking lot of the hotel. They were staying in the same place as Amaya's team, just one floor above. The room situation was easy enough, girls in one room, boys in the next, and Stein and her family across the hall. As they boys settled into their room Mick glanced at his watch, he hadn't told anyone except for Leonard about what he had planned for this weekend or that his foster parents were helping him. He had taken care of the tickets like he planned, his foster parents helped him out with getting Amaya's mother a room in the hotel, and supposedly John was already in the building with the woman.

"You look nervous," Victor observed quietly as he and Mick unpacked their things, Leonard currently in the bathroom.

"Don't know why," Mick muttered, not wanting to start a conversation about what was currently on his mind, or anything else for that matter.

"Maybe something to do with the fact that you brought Amaya's mother out here without telling her?" He asked and Mick snapped his bewildered expression to the other boy, who continued to stare down at his luggage. "Or the fact that she doesn't know?"

Mick just stood there for a moment, glaring at this kid whom he barely knew, but clearly knew an awful lot about him. "Who told you about that?" He demanded, Leonard was the only person aside from John and Lyla who knew, and he would never talk. "Felicity?" He asked; he had no idea how Drusilla could've found out but then again the blabbermouth goth does seem to know most gossip in the school before everyone else.

"Please," Vic scoffed, "Where do you think Felicity gets her information?" He questioned and Mick just stared at him, his mouth slightly agape. "Anyway, don't freak out about it. Amaya hasn't seen her mother in almost a year, she'll be thrilled." He advised before Leonard emerged from the bathroom and the red head moved to take his place.

That left Mick standing there at the foot of the bed, and thinking on what the normally quiet kid had said. He knew it was true, that Amaya would be thrilled. He didn't doubt that for an instant. What had him nervous was how she might react if she found out he was behind it.


	21. Family Reunion

Amaya, although she drove down with her friends, was staying with her team. The only reason for that being that her schedule was much different than that of her friends' due to the fact that she is competing, otherwise she would gladly stay with them and avoid Nate at all costs. Courtney did bring a friend at the last minute, but not without Amaya's prompting. Six people in one room was going to be a bit of a squeeze, especially when two of those six people are avoiding each other, but they would have to make it work.

"Amaya," It was the voice of her coach that snapped her from her thoughts and prompted her to look where he stood by the door. "Someone's here to see you."

She furrowed her brow, who would be here looking for her? She had only left her friends fifteen minutes ago, what could have possibly happened in that time that would bring one of them down here? Besides, she was fairly certain most of them would simply walk right into the hotel room without knocking. She watched curiously as Henry opened the door, as did the others, all waiting to see who was standing on the other side.

Time stopped.

There was a woman standing in the doorway, one only known to Amaya and Henry and a stranger to the others. She was tall, dressed in a long orange skirt and matching top with her dark hair pulled back into a low bun.

"Mom?" Amaya asked in complete and utter disbelief. The woman was smiling brightly at her, and soon a matching smile was adorning Amaya's own face as she ran towards the woman and wrapped her in a hug so forceful that the two of them nearly toppled backwards.

Ms. Jiwe laughed as she held her daughter, her arms locked around the teenager's back as fat tears of joy spilled out of her eyes. Amaya was crying too, her face buried in her mother's shoulder as they stood in the doorway and refused to let go of each other.

Finally they stepped inside, still locked in their embrace, and only after she had kicked the door closed behind them did Ms. Jiwe peel her daughter away from her just enough so that she could get her hands on her face and wipe away some of the tears.

"You look so beautiful," she cried and Amaya laughed through her own tears.

"How? How are you here?" She asked, as unspeakably happy as she was to see her mother here she was also worried about exactly how this had come to be. Zembesi is a small village, and not a wealthy one. Finances were part of the reason she started in jujitsu to begin with; it was something that could potentially provide her with a half decent future.

"Your friend Mick," Her mother answered, "He and his family brought me here for the competition."

The smile left Amaya's face.

She wasn't unhappy, not by any means, she was just… shocked. Complete and utter shock would be the only way to describe what she was feeling when her mother said that Mick Rory was the one responsible for this.

Shock didn't even begin to cover how the others in the room felt.

Courtney and her friend, Kara, were more confused than anything, as they hardly know Mick. Courtney could at least understand that he wasn't someone who would be expected to be behind something like this, as she often heard Nate ranting about how awful the kid is. Speaking of Nate, he looked as though he were about to pass out. His face had gone pale and his jaw slack while Ray stood next to him with his eyes wide and all but popping out of his head. Even Mr. Heywood was at a loss for words.

"What?" Ms. Jiwe finally asked, not oblivious to how the tension in the room had grown unbearably heavy when she revealed who it was that brought her here.

"Nothing," Amaya assured her mother, a small but still bright smile returning to her face. "It's nothing."

* * *

Upstairs the rest of the kids were getting ready to head out to the Star City natural history museum, as Mrs. Stein had to promise the principal that this field trip would be just as educational as it would be purposeful for the club in order to get it okayed. None of the teens were exactly thrilled about it, especially Sara who had been on plenty of field trips to this exact museum growing up in Star City and was very much over it, but they figured it couldn't be the worst trip they could take. Amaya wasn't supposed to be going with them; as she had practice for the competition. So when she showed up in their hallway Caitlin, who was on her way back to the girls' room, arched an eyebrow, and her confusion only grew when she saw Amaya stop outside of the boys' room and knock.

"What are you doing down here?" She asked and when Amaya turned her head she had a bright smile on her face, not to mention she was out of breath.

"I… It's uh… Mick… Long story." She spluttered, seemingly too happy to form a cohesive thought.

Before Caitlin could question her friend further the door the boys' room opened and she rushed inside. Curiosity peaked; Caitlin walked over to the door and peered inside at a scene that if it weren't right in front of her she may not have been able to believe.

Amaya hadn't gone too far from the door; in fact she had barely gone all the way into the room. But she was standing there, just in front of the first bed, actually hugging Mick. It was at that moment that Leonard appeared in front of Caitlin, an amused grin on his face and Victor trailing right behind him.

"Stein wants us all outside her room in ten minutes, Mick." He called over his shoulder before nudging Caitlin to move aside and let him and Victor into the hall.

"What is that about?" Caitlin asked once the door to the room was safely closed and the two boys began leading her towards her own room.

"Longish story, I'll explain it to everyone all at once." Len replied and Caitlin needed no further prompting to let the two of them into the girls' room.

Mick heard the knock at the door, and he glanced over but Len was already there so he returned to shoving around the items in his bag. He wasn't looking for anything really, just sort of giving his hands a task while he thought about the conversation he'd just had.

* * *

_They arrived at the hotel barely five minutes ago and already Mick's plan was going to hell. Ok, maybe going to hell would be a little bit extreme, but still, Vic knowing about it wasn't exactly part of the plan. It didn't matter though, so long as it remained a secret from Amaya for the next few minutes._

_Speaking of his little plan, he had arrived at the room his foster dad had instructed him to find, not that Stein knew he was even gone of course. He knocked twice on the door and was about to knock a third when it opened._

_"Hey man," his foster dad greeted him._

_"Hey," he returned, "Amaya and her team are in their room." He said and John smiled as he opened the door a little wider, revealing the woman in the room behind him._

_She looked over at Mick, a bright smile lighting up her face the moment that she saw him and she hurried over to the doorway._

_"Hello, you must be Mick!" She beamed and he nodded, his face still set in an unreadable expression._

_"Yeah," He said plainly, "You ready?"  
"Of course!" The woman exclaimed excitedly and so again Mick nodded before he turned on his heel and led the way._

_The three of them walked down the hall and the next one before stopping at the corner where Mick pointed down the next hallway._

_"Halfway down, room 218." He instructed and the woman practically squealed in anticipation._

_"Thank you!" She said excitedly before she started to go but then turned back. "Aren't you coming?" She asked but Mick shook his head, while John just looked between the two but eventually sided with Mick._

_Ms. Jiwe smiled gratefully at the two of them, although a little remorsefully because she had thought they would be going with her. In all honesty she looked like she might be about to cry, before she continued off down the hall._

_Mick and John stayed where they were hidden behind the corner, watching as Amaya ran out of the room and hugged her mother. Mick smiled at the scene, not daring to tear his eyes away until both Amaya and her mother were inside the hotel room and he could no longer see them._

_"You did good buddy," John praised with a squeeze to his foster son's shoulder. Mick, now snapped out of the moment, looked up at him._

_"Thank you, for helping me." He said and John smiled down at him._

_"No problem man." He said, the pride still glimmering in his eyes. "Now, have fun on your field trip, I've got to get going. It's a long way back to Central City." He said as he began to walk away._

_"Wait," Mick called, effectively halting him. "You're going back now?"_

_"I've got a meeting in the morning." John replied.  
"You came all the way out here? For ten minutes? Why?" He questioned and John smirked._

_"That's what parents do man."_

* * *

Mick was snapped out of his memory by the sight of someone approaching him out of the corner of his eye. He barely looked up in time to see Amaya as she threw her arms around his neck and looking over her shoulder he saw the room door closing behind Victor. So there he stood, frozen with Amaya's arms around him until she finally pulled away and he was able to see the exuberant smile on her face.

"Thank you," she breathed out but still he stared at her as though he were a deer caught in the headlights.

"Uh…" He trailed dumbly, completely at a loss for words.

Amaya, finally, seemed to realize how uncomfortable this was for him and so she stepped out of his personal space and crossed her arms awkwardly over her middle as she schooled her features back down to their normal appearance.

"I have to get to practice," she half lied, as she didn't need to start getting ready for another twenty minutes. "But I wanted to thank you for bringing my mom here, it…" she trailed off, a few tears she hadn't expected springing to her eyes and so she took a moment to blink them away. "It means a lot to me."

Mick nodded, face still displaying shock but just a tad more at ease now that she was off him. "You're welcome." He said in a voice that was practically a whisper and she smiled again, this time down at her feet.

When she was certain that he wasn't going to say anything more, and neither was she, she turned and made her way for the door.

"I have to go to a reception ceremony after the competition," she decided to say just as she stopped before the door, turning back hesitantly. "You should come with me."

Mick stared at her, panic starting in his system at her suggestion. A reception is usually something formal, or at least close to formal, and formal is not a place where he belongs.

But he nodded in agreement anyway.


	22. The Junior Olympics

The next day brought them to the Star City rec center bright and early for the competition. Amaya had to stay with her team until after she competed but the others were free to walk around and check out the other events. All Mrs. Stein asked was that they all make it back to the Judo mats in time for Amaya's event later in the afternoon. Mick's plan was to wander around with Len but one look at Sara had him reconsidering. He couldn't put his finger on it, but something was off about the blonde. She looked almost nervous, and every time Leonard moved she followed or at the very least watched closely. He decided that whatever was going on between the two it wasn't something that he wanted to be involved in, so he instead ended up walking around the building with Felicity and Caitlin.

A decision that he was quickly coming to regret.

Felicity had been his friend since he met her on his first day back, and he had never disliked Caitlin so much as he had been a jerk to her when they were kids. He liked both of the girls just fine, but he was learning that the two of them together could be quite the torturous combination.

"I'm just saying that Cisco and Winn are very good at what they do, but I will break through that firewall of theirs." Felicity said and Caitlin laughed at the notion that the goth could defeat the two boys. Apparently the tech club had an initiation ceremony where a new member, to prove their worth or something, needed to take down a firewall designed by founding members Cisco and Winn within a certain amount of time.

"And I'm just saying that if those two worked together on something, I will be very impressed if someone with even your skills can crack it." Caitlin chuckled,

"You're on," Felicity laughed, "Just you wait. They'll be done with it by the time we get back and I will have it down in an hour." She boasted and while Caitlin outright laughed at the notion, Mick simply took the opportunity to break away from the two and go check out the nearest rehearsing team.

* * *

While Mick was off trying to entertain himself, Felicity and Caitlin were making bets on the tech club initiation, and Helena and Victor were off who knows where, Sara and Leonard had wandered out the open back door of the rec center to look at some of the outside events and get a bag of popcorn. Sara was keeping her eyes peeled for anyone she may know, but so far they hadn't come across anyone. She was starting to relax, starting to think that maybe she had been wrong and her old friends wouldn't be hanging around the rec center this weekend. But of course it's just when she put her guard down that her sister came into view.

She and Len were walking by the fence that gated in the track when she spotted Laurel out of the corner of her eye. Len, apparently noticing that her eyes were locked on something, followed her gaze until he caught sight of the tall brunette he had thus far only seen in pictures. She saw them, was meeting Sara's eyes too perfectly to not, and so he looked between the two for a second before he took just a half a step closer into Sara's personal space and leaned down to whisper in her ear.

"Go," he encouraged but she remained frozen, her eyes locked with her sister's seventy feet away before the older girl turned and walked away.

"No," Sara said with a shake of her head and a crack in her voice.

She wiped quickly at her eyes and walked off in the opposite direction her sister had gone, leaving Leonard to stand there for another moment before he turned to follow her.

* * *

It didn't take long for Mick to grow bored of walking around by himself and watching other events, therefor he eventually found his way over to the judo mats to watch Amaya and her team practice. He sat by himself, away from most other people and especially away from Amaya's mother. He didn't know what he should do around that woman so naturally he decided to avoid her. Another person whom he was actively avoiding was Nate Heywood, and that one should not have been a problem because the feeling was mutual with that guy.

So why did the kid think it was a good idea to come over and sit down next to him?

"You brought her mom here?" He asked it, but it wasn't a question. Ms. Jiwe hadn't let it be a secret that he was the one behind her visit, something that he probably should've asked her to do.

"Yeah," he said simply and Nate sighed.

"Wish I'd thought of it," he said and Mick hummed with acknowledgement, not quite sure what he should say to that. Nate, meanwhile, drew a shaky breath as he prepared himself for whatever he was planning to say next. "Look," he finally began, "You and me have history, and as a history nerd I'm not very good at forgetting it." He chuckled and Mick nodded but he didn't say anything. "We're uh… we're not kids anymore, and even I have to admit that you're not the Mick Rory who disappeared two years ago. I'm sorry for having given you such a hard time since you came back."

"It's ok," Mick replied with a shrug, "History or not, I deserved it after everything I did to you and haircut."

"So… call it even?" Nate asked and again Mick shrugged, although this time he did smile just a little.

"Sure, call it even."

* * *

After a few hours the kids all found their way back to the judo mats to watch Amaya compete, and as exciting as the competition was it wasn't anywhere near as exciting as that night was bound to be, what with Amaya bringing Mick along with her to the reception ceremony.

"I look stupid," the boy commented as he looked in the mirror at himself dressed in one of Victor's collared shirts with a matching tie.

"You're more than welcome to wear your own clothes," Vic all but snapped, "But I should remind you that those are all either caked with dirt or filled with holes."

Mick rolled his eyes, but the guy did have a point. Felicity had taken one look at him with his ripping jeans and food stained shirt and demanded he change. He'd argued that he didn't exactly bring his good clothes, but that was when Helena oh so helpfully began digging through her boyfriend's suitcase and emerged with a pair of khakis, a purple and white plaid dress shirt, and black tie. Mick managed to talk the girls out of the ridiculous khakis, even though that meant trading them out for a pair of Leonard's jeans, and now he was waiting for a decent time to go downstairs and meet up with Amaya.

"What are you guys doing tonight?" He asked Leonard, trying to make conversation and preferring to keep the topic off of himself.

"You know Stein, she's always got some big idea." His friend drawled, "She was drilling Sara throughout the entire competition about restaurants around here, I think we're going out for pizza." He replied and Mick nodded.

"I didn't hear her saying anything," he said and Len sighed, not once taking his eyes off the book he was reading.

"She was whispering, I don't think she wanted to be too loud and have the others interrupting her."

"So you were with Sara all day, and then at the competition you were sitting close enough to hear Stein whispering to her?" Mick teasingly asked and he could only laugh when Len shook his head while not only keeping his gaze on his book, but also maintaining a completely straight face.

"Don't you have a date to get to?" He asked plainly.

"It's not a date," Mick insisted with a chuckle before he checked his watch and decided that, although he had been mocking him, Leonard was right and he should head down to meet Amaya. "Have fun getting pizza," he said before he got up and headed for the door.

Len looked up and watched Mick walk out, then he waited until the door was closed and he was certain that his friend would not be coming back before he returned to the book he was only half reading.

"Whatever you want to tell yourself," he muttered.

* * *

Mick made it down to the room where Amaya and her team were staying and knocked before he could talk himself out of it. It was a few seconds before the door opened, and when it did it opened to Courtney wearing a dark blue colored sundress and red sneakers that surprisingly looked nice together.

"Hey Mick," she greeted him, "Amaya's down in her mom's room getting ready."

He nodded, not really sure what else to do. This wasn't exactly his element after all.

"Uh, thanks." He managed,

"You're welcome." Courtney said happily and so he turned away and she shut the door.

Mick made his way back down to the room where he had met up with John yesterday and knocked, and this time when the door opened he was awestruck.

Amaya was dresses similarly to Courtney, except for that her dress was a bright yellow that probably shouldn't look good on anyone but somehow looked beautiful on her. She wore black sandals on her feet instead of sneakers and her hair was curled in a half up half down style that fell around her face perfectly.

"Hey," she greeted him, just barely managing to snap him out of his haze.

"Hey," he said back before her mother appeared behind her, bright smile still glued on her face the way it had been ever since she arrived.

"Let's get going kids!" She practically sang as she all but pushed her, now laughing, daughter into the hallway and locked the door behind them. "We don't want to be late."

"We'll be fine mom," Amaya reasoned but it was clear that the older woman wasn't listening. The next thing that Mick knew he was being hurried down the hallway alongside Amaya as they made their way back to the room that he had just come from.

Normally he would hate this sort of thing, dressing up and rushing around to get to some formal thing on time, it wasn't his type of thing. He suspected that it might not normally be Amaya's either, but she could enjoy herself during such a time if she had to go. Besides, for the first time in over a year it was her mother who was hurrying her along, and when Mick realized how brightly she was smiling at the sensation of such a thing he smiled as well. He could get through tonight; he might even enjoy himself, if it would keep that smile on her face.

* * *

Meanwhile, everyone else had indeed gone out for pizza at the only place Sara had been able to think of off the top of her head that was decent, cheap, and accustomed to large groups of people coming in on short notice. They sat at one of the bigger tables towards the back of the restaurant, Lily Stein insisting that she sit next to her new best friend Helena which resulted in Vic sitting on the other side of the child instead of next to his girlfriend, something the other teenagers all found quite amusing. They ordered two pizzas, one cheese and one combination, before the waitress left and they all returned to their separate conversations.

"And that's the formula for salt," Lily proudly explained to Helena. She had taken her paper placemat and box of crayons provided with the kids menu and instead of playing tic-tac-toe or hangman she had drawn out the molecular formula for every element on the periodic table, along with some combinations that two or more of them made.

"Wow," Helena said, her voice some odd mix of impressed and concerned over the little girl's, completely correct, work. "You're better at chemistry than I am."

Lily beamed proudly at the words, "Thanks!" She exclaimed, "I like science, when I grow up I want to be neurosurgeon!" She boasted and Helena honestly couldn't say anything to that, mostly because of the fact that the nine-year-old clearly knew what a neurosurgeon was, and so she could only look over the child's head at Vic for some help.

"Lily," the girl's father spoke up, coming to Helena's aid when her boyfriend clearly couldn't think of how to. "Remember a neurosurgeon, as well as any other type of surgeon, operates on people. That means you'll look at blood." He said and so Lily pouted.

"I know," she huffed before looking up at Helena and motioning for the older girl to lean down. When Helena complied Lily cupped her hands as so to whisper into her ear. "I don't like blood," she whispered loudly, loud enough to defeat the purpose of the whisper and so Helena straightened up again with a nod. "But mommy says I can outgrow that, so I'll be ok by the time I'm grown up." She reasoned.

"Wow, Stein has an interesting kid." Sara said quietly to Leonard as the two of them observed the conversation happening across the table from them.

"She does," Leonard agreed before he leaned just a hair closer and Sara leaned over as well at his unspoken request, giving him access to her ear so that no one would hear whatever it was that he had to say. "I'm sorry about Laurel," he whispered before pulling back to meet her eyes, the eyes that she was so obviously trying to keep from betraying her with hurt.

"Me too," she muttered before a small smile returned itself to her face. "But it is what it is, and for what it's worth, I'm glad I moved to Central City." She said and Len smiled, a real smile, maybe the first one he had given since before he had Lisa separated from him.

"Me too," he said and the would deny it later if anyone brought it up, because at least one person if not everyone had to have noticed, but underneath the table their hands joined together.


	23. Halfway Home

When they arrived back from Star City on Sunday afternoon Mick walked into the house only to find both of his foster parents waiting for him in the living room.

"Hey Mick, how was your trip?" Lyla asked him the moment that he had the door closed behind him, she didn't even wait until he had completely set down his backpack.

"Uh… fine." He answered as his eyes shifted between the two adults, who were both watching him intently. "Where are the kids?" He asked, noticing that not only was there no visible sign of the twins but the house was also oddly quiet for them to be close by.

"They're with my mother," Lyla answered simply, "She's been dying to have them visit her."

"Ok," Mick replied cautiously, still waiting for someone to tell him what's going on. Sure this all SEEMED innocent enough; the twins at their grandmother's house and maybe he just happened to walk in while John and Lyla were sitting on the couch and enjoying the quiet. But there was a tension in the room that he couldn't ignore. Something was up, and he needed to know what.

"Lyla and I went to a meeting yesterday," John finally said, at long last addressing the invisible elephant in the room. "About you."

Ok, that Mick didn't know. He knew John went to a meeting yesterday, he had been told as much. He could've guessed that Lyla was at the meeting as well, considering they do work together. But the fact that this meeting had apparently been about him, and yet didn't include him, made his stomach twist.

He went and sat down in the chair that was located adjacent to the couch, both of his foster parents watching his movements carefully.

"Ok," he said once he was settled, "What's up?"

There was a beat of silence that only lasted a few seconds but it felt like hours before Lyla finally broke it.

"Well," she began, "When you were placed into our custody it was only to be for a temporary basis of six months, that was four months ago." She explained and Mick briefly glanced down at the ground before shifting his eyes back up.

"So in two months… what are they going to do with me?" He asked and John and Lyla glanced at each other for a split second before looking back at him.

"We would like, ideally, for you to stay here. With us." Lyla said and Mick honestly wasn't sure if she was joking or not. She looked serious, as serious as he had ever seen her, but just the idea that these people would want to continue fostering him was so absurd that he had to look to John for confirmation.

His foster dad looked to be every bit as serious as his wife.

He also leaned forward, producing a manila folder from underneath his leg and handed it over for Mick to see. The teenager took the folder with almost zombie like movements, everything moving in slow motion for him, and he opened it to find a bunch of legal papers he never even considered he would see.

"You do have a say in this man, big time. But if you want, we would like to adopt you." He proposed and Mick could swear that his heart stopped in his chest.

Adopt him.

These people, these people with two young children already, wanted to adopt him.

The thought of JJ and Sarah brought him back to reality enough to focus, if only a little bit. His foster parents were watching him expectantly, though for what he couldn't be sure. They wanted to adopt him. They wanted to keep him here. He's a convicted arsonist and they wanted to keep him here in the same house as their two little kids.

"Uh…" he finally stammered, his eyes still glued to the papers.

"Mick you don't have to make a decision right now," Lyla assured him and John nodded in agreement.

"Yeah, take some time to think about it. We know it's a lot." He said and so this time Mick nodded, his whole body feeling numb as he swallowed nervously. Then John and Lyla got up and headed out of the room, apparently wanting to give him some time alone with his thoughts. Once they were gone he stood up as well, only instead of heading for the kitchen or upstairs he slipped out the front door.

* * *

"Mom, I'm home." Caitlin called as she entered the house and her mother came walking down the hallway from the kitchen.

"Hi honey, how was Star City?" She asked and Caitlin shrugged, crinkling her eyebrow a bit at the "honey" nickname but decided not to press on it.

"Fine, Amaya got second place." She answered and her mother smiled.

"That's good," she praised, "You know, I was wondering, why don't the two of us go out for dinner tonight?" She suggested and again Caitlin knitted her brows together in confusion, this was definitely unusual for her mother.

"Did somebody die?" She asked, thinking that some horrible news could be the only possible explanation for her mother's unusually cheery disposition; she had to be trying to mask some sort of pain.

"No," The older woman promised, "I just want to go out, just the two of us." She pleaded but Caitlin still wasn't convinced.

"As opposed too...?" She trailed off with the question and her mother's face fell, her hands moving to her hips with disappointment and that looked so much more natural on the woman.

"You know Caitlin, I just thought it would be a nice change of pace. But if you want to be like this-"

"Ok," Caitlin hurriedly said, seeing that she had accidentally sent her mother onto a roll and if she didn't intervene there would be a high chance of ending up grounded. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean it like that. Where do you want to go?" She asked and her mother huffed but Caitlin could see that the apology was accepted.

"Where would you like to go?" She echoed the question and Caitlin shrugged, truthfully she hadn't been out to eat in so long she could barely remember what places she liked and which ones she didn't.

"There's a new place downtown," she eventually suggested, remembering having heard something about a new restaurant having opened up last summer. "We could try it?"

"That sounds good," her mom agreed.

* * *

Leonard didn't do very much while he was at the group home. Mostly he just sat on his bed reading, unless his roommate was around in which case he would wander aimlessly around the house until he found something to do. He sometimes rolled his eyes when this girl Rosa would sneak out to go see her boyfriend, sometimes covering for her and sometimes not depending on what she promised in return. He avoided most of the other kids, and frankly spent most of his time away from the house and either at Sara's or somewhere with Mick or Felicity. There were some kids in the house whose parents had managed to hold onto visitation rights, so it wasn't completely unusual for there to be an adult he didn't know somewhere around. He had, obviously, never had a visitor in the time he had been in the house and so when he returned from Star City and the social worker who ran the place told him to go to the living room because he had a visitor he was expecting Agent Nelson.

Instead there was a woman waiting for him.

She was fairly young; probably not even thirty yet, with tanned skin and curly brown hair with blonde highlights on the bangs. She looked nervous, which almost doubled when she noticed that he had entered. She stood from the couch and just looked at him, he stared back not really knowing what else to do.

"Hi Leonard," she eventually said, her voice careful and treading very carefully.

"Hi," he said, still confused about all this. "Um… can I help you?"

"My name is Kendra, my husband and I are your sister Lisa's foster parents."

Len could've sworn that his heart stopped beating.

His breath was caught in his throat, along with any words that could've possibly come out of his mouth. Was Lisa ok? Was she sick? Had something happened to her? Were they handing her back to the system? He had a million and one thoughts racing through his mind, very few of them good, and he couldn't bring himself to ask any of them aloud.

"Lisa's fine," Kendra finally said, she must have seen the panic on his face realized what his thoughts must be. "She misses you, a lot." She continued before motioning for him to go to her and take a seat on the couch. He did so without protest, a little too much in shock for that, and she sat next to him. "My husband and I can't provide for a third child right now, we've done all the math out a hundred different ways but… we just can't."

"You can't send Lisa here," Leonard said maybe just a hair too darkly. He wasn't even entirely sure if this was heading in that direction, considering she had so far talked more about him and why they can't take him than she had Lisa. But he knew going into this that finding a home that would take both him and Lisa would be next to impossible, which was why he asked Agent Nelson to separate them.

"We aren't," Kendra assured him quickly, "Lisa will be remaining with us, don't worry. I'm here because I've talked to Agent Nelson and… because you're a minor Leonard, and because you're also in foster care, your rights to seeing Lisa aren't as strict as they would be if you were over eighteen." She began and Leonard had to suppress the thoughts about how if he were over eighteen he would be fighting for custody of Lisa rather than sending her away to live with a foster family. "I've spoken to Agent Nelson about you having full visitation rights to Lisa, unsupervised." She said and Len perked up a little bit, though mostly because she was handing him a folded piece of paper from her purse. "It's our address," she explained, "We're not too far past the boarder of Central and Keystone, you can come visit whenever you want. Our phone number is on there, you can call whenever and if you ever need a ride or anything just call me." She offered, still looking at him with sorrow. "I wish that we could foster you Len, but this is the best that I can do right now."

"Thank you," he told her, his voice sincere. "Really, I never expected to be able to see Lisa again."

"This is only a halfway solution," she reminded him sadly but he gave her a partial smile.

"Halfway is better than nothing," he assured her and she smiled at him before they were interrupted by the same social worker who had told him to report to the living room, the house phone in her hand.

* * *

Being out to dinner with her mother was… well it was award for Caitlin. She and her mother rarely ate together at home, never mind went out to eat together. They were quiet in the car ride to the restaurant and it wasn't until after they had ordered their drinks that the silence finally broke.

"How are your friends?" Her mom asked and she shrugged.

"Fine," she replied simply.

"How about Ronnie?" She asked,

"He's good,"

"The two of you are, you know, together?" She continued to prod and Caitlin nodded. "Is his family nice?"

Caitlin's lips parted as she realized why she had been dragged out to dinner, so that she could be interrogated with nowhere to run.

"Yes," she answered honestly, "His parents are nice, he's an only child."

"What do his parents do?"

"His dad is an electrician, his mom works as a bank teller."

Her mother nodded; satisfied with the answer and Caitlin felt a twinge of pride at that. Her mom liked picking at her friends, finding their flaws and honing in on them, so it was nice that so far she seemed to approve of Ronnie.

"What about that Felicity girl?" She asked and Caitlin chewed at her lip, knowing that Felicity was going to be a little harder of a sell than Ronnie.

"What about her?" She asked carefully and her mother shrugged.

"What do her parents do?"

"It's just her mom," Caitlin supplied, "I don't know what she does." She finished and she eyed her mother carefully for a reaction. Before her dad left, her mother had always looked down on single parents. She always acted as though it was an irresponsible choice to be raising a child alone and she would never care enough to hear out a person's circumstances. But Caitlin was still yet to really see that tested since her father walked away.

Sure enough her mother did emit a judgmental "hm," noise, but it seemed to stem more from disapproval of not knowing Miss Smoak's occupation than anything else.

"She seems… interesting." She commented and Caitlin couldn't help but grind her teeth for just a minute.

"Felicity isn't the type of person I would normally hang out with," she agreed, "But keep in mind she's my mentee for the peer mentoring program."

"Right," Her mother nodded, "I forgot, you're required to spend time with her."

Anger flickered through Caitlin's eyes. She wasn't required to hang out with Felicity outside of the mentoring meetings and events, she chose to.

"Felicity is my friend mom," she said almost coldly.

"I know," her mom insisted.

"I don't hang out with her because I have to, I do it because I want to." She said and her mother looked to be, for at least a few seconds, at a loss for words.

"Caitlin, I have nothing against your friends." She insisted, "I'm just taking an interest."

"Little late for that, don't you think?" Caitlin muttered under her breath and their drinks arrived before her mother could say anything. They ordered their food and for a moment the impending argument was put on hold, but once the waitress was gone the tension returned.

"Alright fine," her mother huffed in a low and honest voice. "I'm just a little worried about you is all, you've been going out without telling me lately and I'm worried."

"What do you mean?" Caitlin asked, crossing her arms over her chest. "I tell you where I'm going."

"You leave notes for me," her mother corrected, "You don't ask me beforehand for permission to go somewhere, and I don't know these kids who you're hanging out with. I don't know their parents, I don't know anything about them-"

"You're usually at work," Caitlin interrupted, "I'm not supposed to call you there because you're usually in a meeting, so I can't exactly ask you."

"In which case I don't want you leaving the house." Her mother deadpanned, "What if something happened to you?"

"So what, I'm just supposed to stay locked up in the house until you get home?" Caitlin demanded incredulously.

"That or tell me ahead of time where you're going."

"But what about plans that come up at the last minute?" She asked,

"Unless you have permission from me, you are not allowed to go." Her mother said slowly, as though she were talking to a child.

Caitlin was suppressing the urge to cry, something she would not to do in a public place such as a restaurant.

"So I'm not allowed to have friends?" She asked, the tears threatening to spill over despite her internal protests.

"Caitlin," her mother sighed, "Of course you're allowed to have friends. I just want to know that you're safe when I'm not home."

"I trust them," she said in a small and quiet, yet determined, voice and her mother, to her credit, did appear sympathetic on the outside.

"You're my daughter Caitlin and, until I know them better, I don't."

* * *

It had been almost four hours since John and Lyla had their little conversation with Mick, and almost four hours since anyone had seen him. At first the Diggles assumed that he might have gone for a walk to clear his head, but now they weren't so sure. They had scoured the house, the yard, and the rest of the neighborhood looking for the missing teen but were coming up empty on all accounts. It may have only been a few hours but if they didn't find Mick soon the sun would go down, and if he didn't return by tomorrow they would have no choice but to inform the police. If the police found out then a report would be filed, a report that would make it's way to Waller, and thus potentially destroy any chance John and Lyla could have of adopting Mick or any future foster child.

So yeah, they needed to find him.

They called Lyla's mother, as well as Andy, plus the group home where Leonard was staying, and Henry Heywood in case he had gone to see Amaya. But he was nowhere to be found. Jonny was driving around the entire west side of the city, Lyla taking the east side, and Carly had come over to keep watch in case the teenager returned.

When the front door opened the teacher turned and expected to see one of her in-laws, or a cop, but instead she was met by the sight of Leonard and Amaya; both of them looking very worried.

"Any sign of him?" Amaya questioned and Carly shook her head.

"You two didn't have to come," she said but she knew it was a lie, neither one of them could bear to sit back if Mick was missing.

"Where have they checked?" Leonard questioned.

"Jonny's driving around the west side now, Lyla the east. We called the coffee shop but he's not there, they said he isn't scheduled until tomorrow night." Carly reported and Len nodded.

"What about the outskirts of town?" He asked, "Where there's still a lot of farmland?"

"You think Mick ran away to a farm?" Amaya demanded and despite being two years younger than her Leonard was able to stare her down enough to get her to listen.

"I think, based on the conversation I was told took place before he ran away, there are two places he might be, and only two people he might be willing to listen to."


	24. A Shift in the Tides

Leonard went to check Mick's old house.

Personally Amaya didn't think that their friend would be there, and maybe Len thought the same thing. Maybe he knew that there was only one place Mick would go to, and he sent her there on purpose.

The cemetery was not a place she had visited before, only driven past, so it took her some time to find her way around it's twisting paths of gravestones before she finally stumbled upon the missing Mick Rory. He was kneeling in front of one of the many grey slabs of rock, his head bowed and eyes transfixed on the little blades of grass that brushed against the stone. He was so lost in his own world that as she drew closer he didn't so much as flinch.

She glanced at the name on the stone:  _Mary Jenean Rory._ Looking ever so slightly to the right of Mick there was another grave:  _Stephen Arnold Rory._

"Mom and dad?" She asked the question before she could even think it through, and when Mick looked over his shoulder at her with a start she fully expected him to tell her to get lost.

Instead, he just turned back to his mother's grave.

"Yeah," he answered, "Unless I take up John and Lyla on their offer to adopt me. Did you hear about that?" He asked, glancing back over his shoulder at her again and she nodded whilst lowering herself to the ground in the space next to him.

"Who do you think told me you ran away?" She asked and Mick sighed, avoiding her eyes.

"I didn't run away," he said, "Or I didn't mean to anyway. I don't know, I just… It just…"

"Mick," she interrupted gently, an even gentler hand moving instinctively to his arm. "I get it," she assured him.

Mick almost believed her for a second, but she couldn't know how it was that he was feeling. She had to be lying, so he scoffed and rolled his eyes.

"Yeah right," he muttered and she tried not to be hurt by the comment.

"I do," she insisted, "Maybe not exactly, but I understand how hard it is to make a choice that will change everything." She said and Mick still looked like he didn't believe her, so she sighed. "At the end of the school-year, I'm supposed to move back to Zembesi." She admitted and finally Mick looked at her.

"Supposed to?" He asked,

"I am," she corrected, although she wasn't sure if she was trying to convince Mick or herself. "I am moving back to Zembesi, that's always been the plan." She said in a shaky voice. "There's just… there's so much here that I don't want to leave behind, but there's so much there that I miss. Plus the paperwork for staying would be so complicated and I'd only be able to see my mom every few years at best and…" she trailed off, deciding to shut herself up before she not only started crying but also lost track of the conversation and accidently put Mick in a position to avoid his problem. "I know our choices aren't the same, not by a long shot, but I do understand the gravity of something that can change the entire course of your life from here on out." She said before getting to her feet, keeping one hand on his shoulder. "Good luck."

* * *

When Amaya reported back that she had found Mick and he would be home before dark, everyone could breath easy again. Well, almost everyone.

Kendra had driven Leonard to the Diggle's house, and on the way he had asked her if he could be allowed to give her house a call tonight, providing they found Mick before Lisa's bedtime. She told him that would be just fine, and so now he was sitting on the couch of the group home with the phone in his hand and nerves coursing through his body. Eventually it came down to now or never, because Lisa would need to head to bed soon and he wouldn't get a chance to talk to her. With a deep breath he took one more look at the paper Kendra had given him and punched the number into the phone. He waited through one ring, his heart pounding in his chest. A second ring had blood rushing through his ears, the third he began biting the nails of his free hands. The fourth-

"Hello?" It was a man's voice, Kendra's husband he figured. "Hello?" The man asked again and shook Leonard out of his haze of anxiety.

"Hi," He replied with an unexpectedly dry throat. "Um… It's Leonard." He was sure that Kendra had told her husband what she did earlier in the day, who she went to see. The man had to be in on it; she had said that they had decided together that they couldn't take him in after all.

"One second," The man said and then the line went fuzzy, some distant voices all that Leonard could hear and one thing he made out was his sister's name.

"Hello?" Her little voice was on the line sooner than he'd expected it would be, and he brought his free hand to his eyes now in order to try physically blocking the tears.

"Hey squirt," he said in a choked voice and there was a beat of silence, before…

"LENNY!" She squealed so loudly that he needed to yank the phone far away from his ear, smiling the entire time.

"Yeah kid, it's me." He chuckled once he dared bring the phone back to his ear. "How have you been?"

"I'm ok, are you coming to live with me? Am I coming to live with you?" She questioned immediately, "I miss you Lenny!"

"I miss you too Lisa," He said with a sigh, "Listen to me, we're both staying where we are now. But your new mommy and daddy have helped things get sorted out more and they've made it so that I can come and visit you. I talked to your mommy, she said I could come see you this weekend, ok?" He explained and he could hear the smile lighting up his sister's face on the other end.

"Ok! I miss you Lenny!" She repeated and he smiled warmly.

"I miss you too, now I know you have to go to bed soon so I'm going to make this quick. Your mom tells me that you've been throwing temper tantrums?" He asked and, much like the smile, he could easily picture in his mind the guilty little pout Lisa must be displaying.

"I thought maybe they might give me back if I was a bad girl," she mumbled, "I want to be with you." She finished and if that first part didn't break Leonard's heart the second part certainly did.

"I know you do," he said, "But right now that isn't possible, and it'll only get worse if you keep acting up."

"You mean they won't let you visit me?" She asked in a small voice.

"That's right," Leonard frowned, he wasn't entirely sure if such a thing were true or not, but he didn't exactly want to find out. "So I need you to be a good girl, ok?" He asked of her, "Stop with the tantrums and be good to your little brother."

"You're my brother," Lisa whined.

"I'm your big brother," he acknowledged with a smirk. "But that baby is your little brother now, so be good to him." He ordered her good-naturedly and he had to suppress a laugh when he heard her sigh.

"Ok," she said, "He has a name." She informed him and that time Leonard did laugh.

"Oh yeah? What is it?" He asked.

"Aldus,"

"Aldus," he repeated, "Well you be a good sister to Aldus then, ok?" He asked of her.

"Ok," She agreed, "I have to go to bed."

"Ok, goodnight. I love you." Leonard said into the phone.

"I love you too," Lisa's little voice squeaked in reply before the line went dead and Leonard was left sitting alone on the couch, a few tears slipping out of the corners of his eyes.

* * *

When Mick finally worked up the courage to return to the Diggle's residence he spent at least ten minutes simply standing in the front yard.

_"It would be so easy,"_ he thought to himself, involuntarily. Images of the fire that claimed his family flashed through his mind, mocking him with the reminder that he still, even right now if he were to turn around and find himself back there, would contently watch it all burn.

Eventually, when he had lost all track of time and considered taking off again at least three times but still hadn't moved, he decided that it was time to face this and so he walked up to the front door of the house and, after only another moment's hesitation, opened it.

"Oh thank god!" Lyla breathed in relief when she heard the front door open and raced into the living room, John right on her heels, to see Mick entering the house.

The two of them stopped where they were, watching as Mick solemnly closed the door behind him and stood gathering his thoughts before he finally found the courage to look at them.

"I did it." He said simply, seriously, knowing that this confession could have serious consequences but he didn't care. If John and Lyla really wanted him to stay with them, to be a part of their family, then they had a right to be warned what exactly they were getting themselves into. "I didn't mean to do it," he continued, a crack in his voice and tears in his eyes as all the guilt from the past two years came rushing back up to the surface. "My dad kept a lot of chemicals in the basement, and I took the matches from the kitchen. They told me not to play with fire, they weren't stupid, but…" he didn't want to cry, he really didn't, but he just couldn't help it. "I thought I could control it. I thought, I thought the fire was cool, and I just wanted to look at it for a few minutes. I snuck down into the basement so they wouldn't catch me… I didn't see the fluid drip onto it until after it touched my hand and I dropped the match! Then… then I just, I just stood there! When it got too much I ran! I… I didn't… I-" He was stuttering through the tears now, stumbling over every word. Then, all of a sudden, he wasn't alone.

Lyla had made her way closer to him, and now her arms were wound firmly around him and he clung tightly to her, crying into her shoulder as she held him. He didn't understand; how could they still want him? Knowing for sure that he had killed his parents, why weren't they calling the police and having his ass hauled back to Juvie yet?

"It's ok Mick," she whispered into his ear. "It's ok," she promised and he let out another loud sob before forcing himself to pull away from her hug.

"I… I killed them." He said brokenly but Lyla shook her head, taking one hand and placing it on his cheek, guiding him to look her in the eyes.

"When you went down into that basement with that match, did you go down there planning to set the house on fire?" She asked and he shook his head, honestly a little repulsed by the insinuation that he could've intended to kill his parents that night.

"Exactly," she said, "It was an accident."

"For the record Mick," John chimed in, "The judge wouldn't have needed a confession to convict you for murder if she thought you were guilty of it, just evidence. You didn't kill your parents man, all you did was get a little to close to a flame."

"But-"

"What do you think you could've done?" John interrupted the teenager's start of a protest. "That fire started right in front of you, and if that match fell into even a drop of lighter fluid or any other chemical there was no way you could've put it out. It's human nature to run from something like that, and you were just a kid! By the time you got somewhere you could think straight, by the time you must have realized that the smoke alarm didn't wake your parents, there was nothing you could do man." He said and Mick found it, the confirmation that maybe he wasn't a monster and what happened that night wasn't entirely his fault, ridiculously comforting.

"Do you still want me to stay?" He asked and both John and Lyla cracked amused smiles at his question.

"Of course we do," John confirmed and the next thing that Mick knew he was back in Lyla's arms and for the first time in a very, very long time, he didn't feel like there was a giant weight on his shoulders.

* * *

When the phone rang that night in the Lance apartment Sara glanced at the caller I.D. and swore that she had to be crazy. The I.D. was displaying a very familiar number from Star City, and so Sara almost didn't answer it but ultimately she picked the phone off the hook.

"Hello?" She asked, expecting to maybe hear her father's voice, as he had called to catch up with her a few times since the move.

"Hi Sara," It wasn't Quentin's voice that gave the greeting; it was Laurel's.

"Uh… Hi," Sara stuttered.

"How are you?" Laurel asked and Sara made a b-line for her bedroom, not wanting her mother to overhear this considering she had no idea why Laurel had suddenly called her.

"I'm fine, how are you?" She answered quickly.

"I'm good," Laurel answered and there was silence for a minute. Just as Sara opened her mouth to ask her sister why she was calling, however, Laurel spoke. "I just wanted to call and see if we could clear the air?" She asked and Sara swore her heart leapt out of her chest. After all this time, Laurel really wanted to make nice? "If that's ok?" She continued and the words made Sara realize that she still hadn't said anything.

"Yeah, yeah that's fine. I mean… I'd like that." She stuttered and she could hear Laurel sigh in relief on the other end.

"Good, because… look I'm sorry." She said and Sara could've sworn she heard a crack of tears in the other girl's voice. "I haven't seen you in months and then the other day I saw you at the Junior Olympics, and I just wanted to run over and hug you. But I couldn't. We were mad at each other and… I don't want to spend the rest of my life without my little sister." She said and Sara, who was sitting on her floor against her wall and also crying a little by now, gave a small laugh.

"I can't spend the rest of my life without talking to you either," she admitted, "It eats away at me, knowing that we can't talk."

"I know, me too." Laurel assured her,

"And I'm sorry about trying to get with Oliver, it was stupid and I guess I just wanted to make you jealous." She apologized and Laurel laughed.

"It's ok," she assured her, "Besides, I'm guessing I don't have to worry about that anymore. I saw you were with a boy at the rec center." She teased and now it was Sara's turn to laugh.

"That is a complicated relationship that I will tell you about some other time." She said, remembering how she and Leonard had held hands under the table at the restaurant in Star City, and how they had used each other as pillows on both the drive to the competition and the drive back. She wasn't exactly clear on what they are anymore.

"Fair enough," Laurel gave in,

"So we're good?" Sara and asked although she didn't know it, Laurel was beaming on the other end.

"We're good," she confirmed, "I love you."

"Love you too."


	25. Tell Me What To Do

"I mean I get that she's worried, that makes sense, but she's basically put me under house arrest with no good reason." Caitlin vented as she and Felicity walked the school hallways on Friday morning.

It had been a week since Star City, almost, and the girls had barely seen each other in that time due to Felicity spending most of her free time with her boyfriend or, more increasingly, Cisco and Winn. Caitlin had also been spending as much time with Ronnie as she could during school, considering she had basically been banned from seeing him outside of school. So now, on a day when they had happened to bump into each other while each looking for their respective friends, two circles that were growing increasingly closer lately, they were finally catching up.

"That's total bullshit," Felicity exclaimed, "I mean, I understand her wanting you to tell her where you're going, but that can't work if she isn't around for you to tell!"

"I know," Caitlin agreed with a roll of her eyes, an action that led to her glancing more directly at her friend and notice a subtle change in the goth's appearance she hadn't caught before. "Did you dye your hair again?"

Felicity, caught off guard by the sudden comment, took hold of the ends of her hair and quickly examined them, taking notice that her usually ebony locks were ever so much lighter than usual, gradually fading into something darker than her natural color but lighter than she would prefer.

"Nope, exact opposite." She said while letting her hair fall back into place, "I guess I've gotten behind in dying it." She shrugged and Caitlin, though she kept her thoughts to herself, thought the lighter color looked better than the dark black.

"So what are the chances my mom would ease up if she met your mom?" She asked, getting the conversation back on topic and Felicity snorted with laughter.

"My mom the stripper?" She asked incredulously, still laughing at the notion.

"Your mom is not a stripper," Caitlin denied with a roll of her eyes but Felicity was still laughing.

"Adult entertainer, or whatever you want to call it." Felicity amended, although only so they could move forward with the conversation. "My point is I don't think your high and mighty mother, who won't trust her goody-two-shoes daughter, would feel much better after meeting a delinquent one warning away from Juvie and her pole dancing mom."

Caitlin rolled her eyes, but she wasn't going to argue. Much as she hated to admit it, Felicity had a point. Her mom can be, and almost always is, a very judgmental person. She would never see Felicity as a friend to Caitlin, only a troubled cause she was saddled with for some honor society service points. The same could be said for every other mentee in the program, plus even if she did somehow get her mom to like them she still wouldn't be allowed to leave the house without running it by the woman first.

"So what do I do?" She asked and Felicity shrugged.

"Well, I assume you're going to shoot down the suggestion of ignoring her."

"You assume correctly," Caitlin said, she wasn't looking to further the rift that had come between herself and her mom.

"Then start with your boyfriend," Felicity suggested, "You're at his house a lot and he's only met your mom once. Go home and talk to her about having him over for dinner."

Caitlin thought over the idea for a second, trying to think if there were any real danger in that plan but ultimately couldn't come up with anything worse than the house arrest she was already under if things went south.

"That's actually a good idea," she said and Felicity smirked proudly.

"You're welcome. Now speaking of boyfriends, I need to find Cooper before homeroom, he's been getting on my case about tech club making me too busy for him." She said with mock annoyance and a teasing look in her eyes that conveyed just how much she thought her boyfriend was over-reacting to her sudden shift in a social life.

* * *

Friday night brought about Sara and Leonard's weekly movie/cards night. This time they, after determining that there was nothing worth watching on TV, were seated on the couch with a deck of cards between them playing gin; a game Sara was starting to become exceptionally good at.

"You nervous?" Sara asked after a few hands had passed without conversation that did not pertain to the game.

"About tomorrow?" Leonard questioned even though he knew exactly what she was talking about; there wasn't anything else for him to be nervous about. "A little," he admitted. "Though that isn't to say that I'm not excited."

Sara gave a little half smirk at his answer, "You should be," she said and he smirked back at her.

She was happy for him. After all the hell that he's been through he didn't deserve to be ripped away from his sister, even if it was his choice. She admired him for that, for choosing to send his sister off to a family who will love and care for her in the long run even though it meant he wouldn't be able to go with her. He deserved this much, to be able to see her, and Sara was happy he was getting that.

"You said things are all squared away between you and Laurel?" He asked and she chuckled.

"They are," she assured him, "She called the other day, we ended up talking for almost an hour."

"Good," Len said with a smile, happy to hear that, for once, neither of their sister's was going to be a sore topic of conversation.

They played in silence again for another minute, only speaking when it concerned the cards in their respective hands.

"Thank you, by the way." Sara eventually said, "For pushing me to talk to Laurel."

"Well from what I understand it was her who called you, so I'm not sure anything that I said really helped the two of you with your issues." He drawled whilst studying his cards, glancing up to see Sara shaking her head.

"It did," she insisted. "This past year… I've been so angry at her. I know I'm the one who made a move for the guy she was practically dating, who she is dating now, but she told me my idea for the custody arrangement was crazy. Then we got in a fight… and she told me I was right." Leonard listened carefully while Sara spoke, even though she had already told him bits and pieces of this. "We weren't talking when I left, and I was so angry at her for turning her back on me. I mean… she had been mad before, and I knew she was capable of hating me, but she's my big sister. I don't know how to live without her." She confessed and Len remained silent, "Anyway, you're the only one I've actually been able to talk to about it. If you hadn't helped me move on I might have still been angry when she called, and who knows what I would've said to her. So thank you." She concluded, gauging her silent friend for a reaction.

Eventually Leonard let out a huff of breath. "Well now I'm nervous," he deadpanned and Sara crinkled her brows.

"Why?" She asked but when he gave her a pointed look she understood and glanced down with a sigh of her own. "Oh," she mumbled.

"Lisa's not stupid, she knows I let them separate us. At the very least she's angry and wants to blame me for it, doesn't matter if she doesn't know she's right." He said and Sara set down her cards and leveled a glare with him.

"Leonard," she deadpanned sternly, "Your sister loves you, you said it yourself that she screamed over the phone when you called." He shrugged at her words, discarding his own hand of cards for the time being.

"She's a big sister now," he mused, seemingly to himself, and Sara knew it was her turn to stay quiet. "I keep thinking that maybe because of that… maybe one day she'll understand why I did what I did. But God I hope she doesn't."

Sara hummed in acknowledgement; she didn't need to ask why he wouldn't want that. He was staring down at the ground, lost in a world of "what ifs" and possibilities that tomorrow might bring for him, both good and bad. Determined not to let him get caught up in the bad possibilities, which she knew he would, she reached out and curled her fingers around his hand. He looked up at the contact, his curious eyes meeting hers as she tightened her grip and adjusted to hold his hand properly.

"It'll be ok," she promised him.

"Don't lie to me," he warned with a smirk and she smiled at him, before her face grew serious again.

"I'm not."

* * *

Tossing and turning Amaya groaned as she looked at her clock and found that it was well past midnight, meaning that she had been lying awake in bed, being tortured by her thoughts, for over an hour. It was starting to get ridiculous, especially with her date to leave still over a month away, but she just couldn't keep it from eating away at her. Her mind was plagued with images of her village back home, of her mother and grandmother. She thought of all her friends there, and frankly how little she was missing them. Her village was small, so really she only has three or four friends back home and she is almost positive that all of are perfectly fine without her considering she hasn't heard from them since her first few weeks in America. Finally sighing and accepting defeat, for now, she sat up and rolled herself off her bed and marched out of her room. She headed downstairs and into the kitchen, convinced that a glass of water would be enough to ease her troubled mind. When she got there, however, she wasn't expecting to find the refrigerator open, or Ray coming out of it with a take-out box in his hands.

She stopped in the doorway but it was too late, the younger teenager had already seen her and was currently meeting her eyes.

"Oh… hi Amaya," he said awkwardly, clearly he felt as though he were the one who had been caught out of bed. He glanced at the box in his hand before holding it up and looking back at her with an embarrassed grin. "Midnight snack," he explained before shutting the fridge and bringing the box over to the counter where he proceeded to open it and show her it's contents. "Leftovers," he said as she looked at the three chicken tenders and small pile of fries that had been pooled into one container from all three of their dinners earlier; hers, his, and Nate's. "I promise I was only going to eat my share." He swore before she could accuse him of plotting to eat her lunch for tomorrow, but she grinned at his statement.

"Mind if I join you for my share?" She asked and he smiled.

"Sure!" He agreed happily and so with a beaming grin she set about getting the milk and chocolate syrup that he likes so much to put in his while he grabbed two cups, not glasses, but brightly colored plastic cups that came complete with attached straws so that the toddlers they're meant for wouldn't spill.

"You know you can probably fit more milk into an adult glass," she chided him as they walked into the dining room and set the take-out container between their two seats.

"You definitely can," he agreed, squirting some ketchup he had swiped from the fridge. "What's your point?"

"Why do you insist on using these sippy cups?" She questioned as they sat down and began eating their snack, both thinking about how they could've heated the food in the microwave first but neither of them caring enough to get up and do it.

"I don't know," Ray answered with a shrug as he mixed his milk. "You don't have to use them just because I do, I just think they're fun and… I don't know, I guess they just remind me of a simpler time."

Amaya smiled at him before taking another cold French fry and dragging it through the even colder pile of ketchup.

"So, if you don't mind my asking, what are you doing up?" Ray questioned and briefly Amaya debated not telling him, but instead decided that he was probably one of the few people she could trust to consider both angles of her impending decision.

"Thinking about how I have to leave," she replied and his smiling face fell.

"Oh, right." He awkwardly responded, not knowing what else he could say.

For another minute or two they sat in silence, just munching on their chicken and each waiting for the other to say something.

"When I first came here, leaving Zembesi was so hard. I never thought leaving here would be harder." Amaya finally spoke up.

"You could stay, you know." Ray encouraged before pausing to take a quick sip of his milk. "I mean Grandpa would definitely let you stay here, and not only are you just a kid but you also placed second in Judo for the Junior Olympics, so I don't think you would be denied for a green card, and-"

"Ray," she interrupted, pleadingly. "I'm not worried about all that."

"Then what-"

"I'm worried about if I stay, I won't know when the next time I might see my family will be."

Ray was silent at first, his mouth morphing to form an inaudible "oh" as he processed what it was she was fearing.

"That's definitely a big thing," he finally agreed and Amaya pressed her mouth into a firm closed mouthed smile that just screamed,  _"you think, Ray?"_

"But remember, they will always be your family." He said as she began picking at her piece of chicken, ripping what was left of it in half before dipping it into the ketchup.

"I know," she said, "That's why it's so scary to think about not going back."

"I understand," Ray said, "I mean, what if something were to happen while you're here? And you're not there to stop it?"

"Are you trying to convince me to leave?" Amaya half teased with a mock smirk and Ray chuckled.

"Hey, if you wanted someone to tell you to stay you could've gone to Nate or Mick." He taunted and Amaya chuckled.

"I wouldn't say I came to you, I came down for a glass of water and found you with your head in the fridge." She said and they both laughed at the statement, mostly because it was true, and partly because it sounded ridiculous.

"I'm just saying," Ray went on, serious once again. "You can't be in two places at once, and yes you have a family there but you also have a family here, and you're basically trying to choose between them." He said and Amaya couldn't help but frown, because he was right and she really hated thinking about it like that. "Whatever you decide, no one is going to blame you and no one is going to love you any less." He promised her and she looked up at him with a sweet and grateful smile.

"Thanks Ray," she said and soon her smile morphed from thankful to evil. "Now what do you say we split Nate's share of the leftovers?" She asked and Ray grinned a mischievous expression that matched her own.


	26. In The End (Part 1)

"I'm sorry about Cooper," Caitlin said over the phone to Felicity, whose voice sounded empty and her disposition even gloomier than usual. "Do you need me to come over?"

Felicity scoffed on her end of the phone, a weak but sarcastic smile gracing her face. "Will your mom let you?" She challenged, her voice almost hopeful, and Caitlin huffed in frustration on the other end.

It had been about a month since she was "forbidden" to see her friends and thus far she hadn't made much improvement in the department of changing her mother's mind. It turned out that she liked Ronnie, and like him or not she knew that Cisco was a part of her daughters life, but even with those two Caitlin wasn't allowed to go anywhere unless the plans were set in advanced.

"I can try," She finally said and again Felicity laughed a sad laugh.

"Don't worry about it," she insisted, "You don't want to get grounded before the party, and if I really need someone I can wait for my mom to get home." She said and Caitlin chewed anxiously on her lip, she knew that Felicity's mother wouldn't be getting home until almost four in the morning.

"Ok," she said, "Call me if you need to talk again."

"I will," Felicity promised, "Thanks."

"You're welcome." Caitlin hung up the phone and just stared at it, her thumb still hovering over the  _End Call_ button and a plan that was sure to result in her ultimate demise forming in her mind.

She knew this wasn't going to end positively for her, not in the slightest, but as she put the phone back on it's charger she decided that she didn't care and so she marched herself up the stairs and to her mother's cracked door. She stared up at it as though it was the gateway to hell and she had no idea what might await her on the other side. She knew this would be her final chance to back out, but instead she steeled herself and rapped lightly on the door, careful to not let it swing open when she did.

"Come in," her mother called from inside and so Caitlin entered.

Her mom was sitting up in bed and flipping through the channels of her small TV, though she paused to look over at her daughter. Caitlin stood there nearly frozen for a second or two, though it felt like an eternity, as she figured out how she should play this. Her intent coming in was to just blurt out her request, but with the hard and judging eyes of her mother locked onto her as she waited, the teen nearly lost all her nerve. She could hear Felicity's deadpan observations ringing in her ears already, about how this situation sucked and, despite being so much more reckless than Caitlin, her own mother trusted her decisions. So Caitlin took a breath, and prayed that taking a page from her mentee's book wouldn't do her in.

"I'm going to Felicity's." She said it plainly; somehow confidently, despite her heart pounding inside of her chest, and her mother just stared at her before glancing over at the clock.

"Now?" She questioned and Caitlin folded her arms and nodded.

"She and her boyfriend broke up, she's alone, and she needs someone." She explained.

"What do you mean she's alone?" Her mother questioned and while Caitlin wanted to sigh she wouldn't let her mom see how afraid she was of being told to stay.

"Her mom is at work," she answered simply and again Carla looked over at the clock.

"Her mother is working this late?" She incredulously questioned and again Caitlin huffed.

"You've pulled plenty of all nighters at the hospital," she reminded but her mother rolled her eyes.

"That's different," she insisted, "I'm helping people, Felicity's mother is-"

"That's not the point," Caitlin interrupted, refusing to let herself get angry. Ever since her mother got her to tell her about Donna Smoak's profession it had been an argument that her mother would degrade and Caitlin would defend to high heaven. Those arguments were always quick to turn into screaming matches, but Caitlin wouldn't let that happen tonight. "Look, you and I have very different opinions of Felicity and her mother." She began, being mindful to keep her voice even and to choose her words carefully. "If you're worried that me hanging out with the daughter of someone who works as an adult entertainer means that I'm going to climb to the top of a pole and take my shirt off, you're worried over nothing. Just because I don't have a problem with someone who does, doesn't mean that I'm going to. Anyway, I'm not in here to discus Ms. Smoak's job. I'm here because you want me to tell you about my plans before I go, so here I am, telling you that I'm going to Felicity's." She spelled out and for a moment she and her mother just stared at each other, then Caitlin turned to leave and by some miracle got all the way to the door.

"When will you get back?" Her mom called and, since the woman could no longer see her face, Caitlin squeezed her eyes shut in anger.

"I don't know," she replied with the dreaded answer that always guarantees her mom won't let her leave the house.

"Well I need to know what time-"

"Well sorry," Caitlin cut her off, allowing just a little of her anger to show through in her voice. "But I'm not sure how long it'll take her to cry herself to sleep."

* * *

Leonard smiled warmly to himself, as he often did when Lisa wasn't looking. He could still remember last month when he saw her for the first time since the two of them were separated, how she had jumped up into his arms and outright refused to allow him to put her down. Now the two of them were sitting on the floor of the bedroom she shares with Aldus, he had told her it was getting time for him to be leaving and she responded by suddenly remembering one very important toy she needed to show him, which was very conveniently buried somewhere in the back of the closet.

"Leonard, your ride is here!" Kendra's voice came calling and Len chuckled; now he really had to get going.

"Coming!" He called back,

"No!" Lisa shouted as she scrambled out from the closet, "Don't leave yet!"

"I need to Lisa," he told her gently, ruffling her hair as she pouted. "Come on," he prompted her, rising to his feet. "I can't keep Sara and her mom waiting." He said; he and Sara had both been invited to an end of the year/goodbye Amaya party at Nate and Raymond's grandfather's house, so Dinah was giving them both a ride.

"Sara's here?" Lisa piped up, her emotional state instantly springing from distraught to excited in an instant.

Len laughed at her sudden change in attitude and motioned for her to follow him. They walked into the living room where, sure enough, Sara Lance was standing just inside the doorway waiting for Len.

"Sara!" Lisa shouted excitedly as she charged the blonde and sprung up into her arms, much like she had done to her brother the first time he came to visit.

Sara was a little less prepared for such a reaction than Leonard had been, but she caught Lisa easily enough and scooped her up with a laugh.

"Hey Lisa!" She giggled, "What's going on?"

"I got a new doll!" Lisa exclaimed excitedly, "Want to see?" She asked, apparently figuring that she now had the chance to trap both her brother and his friend in her room.

"Some other time squirt," Len said firmly from where he stood in front of Sara, and thus behind Lisa. "We promised our friends we wouldn't be late."

Sara smiled in agreement and set the little girl back on her feet, just in time for Carter to approach them.

"Besides, you need to get started on your summer reading." He said to Lisa, one hand moving to rest on her shoulder when she looked up at him with a pout.

"But the last day of school was only yesterday! Summer JUST started!" She exclaimed exasperatedly, earning a chuckle from everyone else in the room.

"Listen you your dad," Len insisted when her big brown eyes found him in a plea for help. "I'll see you next week." He promised, he then bent over and placed a gentle kiss to the crown of her head before he followed Sara out the door, both of them waiving their goodbyes to Lisa and her family.

* * *

"There's something making weird noises outside." Nate announced as he walked into his grandfather's house, Ray and Amaya in the kitchen and busy filling various bowls with assortments of chips and popcorns.

"Weird noises like what?" Ray asked, genuinely curious but Nate's annoyance with the noise dropped significantly at the question, as if he had just been reminded that he walked in and told a science nerd about strange noises.

"Probably some kind of animal," he guessed, "Or that little kid next door, it was sort of a high pitched whining sound, probably one of his toys."

"Well is he outside?" Amaya inquired,

"I think so," Nate answered and so the conversation was dropped.

"So Amaya?" Ray asked, changing the topic, and licking some of the powdered cheese off of his fingers. "Are you excited to go home?"

"Yes Ray, I'm excited." Amaya answered, giving her usual robot answer. Truthfully no, she wasn't excited. She had hoped that by now she would be, but the closer her departure date got the more she wanted to stay. It was too late now, obviously, to change her mind. She would be going back to Zembesi two days from now and there was nothing that she could do about it.

Well, nothing logical anyway. She could always just not get on the plane and beg Henry to let her stay, but that scenario is nothing but a fantasy.

"Well we're really going to miss you," Nate murmured without meeting her eyes. Ever since that awkward night when he kissed her the two of them had been struggling to find their rhythm with each other again, as friends.

"I'll miss you guys too," Amaya said, sincerely and looking at Nate until he finally glanced up and met her gaze. "But I'll write, I promise."

"You better," Ray said good-naturedly as he moved to go bring his bowl outside, taking Amaya's from her and bringing it with him. That left Amaya and Nate alone in the kitchen.

"I am going to miss you Nate," Amaya eventually said and Nate nodded.

"Like I said, we'll miss you too." He said awkwardly, "I should go help Ray."

* * *

Mick wasn't exactly thrilled about the idea of going to this end of year party, aka the disguise name for Amaya's goodbye party. He wouldn't admit it to anyone else, but he wasn't ready to say goodbye to Amaya. It still felt like it was only yesterday that she walked into Mrs. Stein's little office, him already sitting in the chair and wishing he could've been anywhere else. All he had wanted at first was to get rid of her, and now that she's leaving, he more than anything didn't want her to go.

"You're quiet," John observed as they drove through the suburbs of Central City. Mick shrugged at the comment, he's never exactly a chatterbox but there was no way to deny the tension radiating off of him today was different than usual. "You thinking about Amaya leaving?"

"I'm going to her goodbye party," Mick scoffed, as though that were the only reason his friend's impending leaving was weighing on his mind.

"Yeah, I guess that'll put your mind on that track." The older man sighed as he tried to think of something that he could possibly say to make Mick feel better about all of this.

It wasn't a secret that Mick had a thing for Amaya, except for maybe to both of them. But he could see it, Lyla could see it, and it hurt them to watch Mick deny it.

As they arrived at the house, both too quickly and too slowly, John put the van in park and sat quietly as Mick let himself out.

"You know," he spoke up, just before Mick could close the van door. "The world is a big place, Lyla and I have been stationed all over it. But somehow, we always managed to find our ways back to each other."

Mick nodded but didn't say anything except for a murmured "bye," before he shut the door and turned to make his way to the back yard of the house as John drove off. Entering the backyard Mick looked around and saw that most of his friends were already there, dispersed around a picnic table and various lawn games that looked like they had been dug out of the deepest, darkest corners of Mr. Heywood's garage. He found his way to Sara and Leonard fairly quickly, as they were the first people whom he felt comfortable with approaching alone.

"Hey," he said as he approached.

"Hey Mick," Sara greeted with a smile; Leonard just nodded.

"Think Stein's going to crash the party and yell at anyone who didn't turn in a paper?" He asked, jokingly, but then again he wouldn't really put such an act past the woman.

"Which is exactly why that essay stands as the only piece of homework I actually did." Leonard drawled and Mick smirked, despite his comment he had turned in a paper as well.

Sara rolled her eyes at Leonard's comment, she knew damn well that he isn't nearly as much of a slacker as he pretends to be, and since he no longer has to worry about protecting himself and Lisa from Lewis he's actually able to focus on his schoolwork. In fact, she was fairly certain he had only missed one minor assignment since he was put into the group home. But he has a reputation to protect, and so she waited until Mick left the two of them to look up at him with knowing eyes.

"What?" He asked,

"You do your homework." She reminded him and he smirked.

"Sometimes," he half agreed, "Though I will say it was interesting to write a paper about you."

"Mostly good things I hope?" She teased as she leaned just slightly closer to him, playfulness guiding her actions.

"No worries," he promised her, "I don't think Stein is going to kick you out of the program next year."

"Darn," she mock pouted, "That would've been nice."

Leonard chuckled at her reaction, but knew that he should've expected it. None of them had exactly volunteered for the program, Stein had drafted them all; apparently she thought she knew who in the school would work well together.

Maybe she wasn't quite as crazy as they all thought.

"Can I ask you a question?" Len asked, his face suddenly serious and Sara's matching when she noticed.

"What's up?" She asked curiously and it took him a moment to find his words, his fingers fidgeting nervously.

"I uh…" he stopped and cleared his throat, "I was wondering if maybe you'd like to go out sometime?" He asked and Sara smiled wryly at the suggestion.

"Leonard Snart, are you asking me out?"

"Take it for what you want Lance," He told her, they both knew just as well as anyone that, in high school, one date means  _dating._ There's no such thing as just "going out on a date" without being an item like there is in the movies. Maybe that's how it'll be when they're older, when they're out of school and gossip is constricted to friend groups and people who actually care rather than anyone who will listen. But for now they are still in high school, so they know that by Len asking Sara "out" he's really asking her to be his girlfriend; and THAT'S more than he ever thought he would do with anyone.

But Sara smiled coyly and took his hand, intertwining her fingers with his and he looked down at her.

"I would love to," she agreed and he smiled, he also heard some whispered voice coming from the bush not far from them but brushed it off, opting to let Felicity get at least a head start before he confronted her, if he did at all.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi, ok, I am SO SORRY for the late update. I know I'm usually a lot quicker with the updates, but it's been finals week for me so I've been busy. Next chapter might be a little late too, just because I will be writing it in the midst of moving and settling back into my summer routine of two jobs. But once my work schedule gets sorted out I should have a better handle on this. Also, as you might be able to tell from the chapter title, this story is almost over. I know what I have planned for the end, but I'm considering doing a little bonus chapter after it's over and would like your guys' opinion. You see, I hate AU's. Hate them. But with the arrowverse I think their kind of cool because of the other earths, and I think of the AU's as the stories of what happens to the characters on the other earths. So I've been thinking of doing a bonus chapter where the Legends, our Legends, crash into this AU and stumble across their counterparts. I just want to know if you guys like the idea or if you think it'll ruin the story; please let me know! Thanks!


	27. In The End (Part 2)

"I am amazed that your mom let you come after the other night," Felicity said to Caitlin, the two of them were currently sitting at the end of one of the two picnic tables in the Heywood's backyard and each were eating a hamburger, as well as discussing Caitlin's late night trip to the goth's house earlier in the week.

"She still hasn't said anything," Caitlin said, "I thought she was going to kill me the second I got home, but she's just been acting like it never happened. When I told her Ronnie would be picking me up today she just nodded and asked if I was eating here or if she should make dinner."

"Did I hear my name?" It was Ronnie who asked the question, the football player had appeared behind his girlfriend with a can of soda in each hand and a teasing smile on his face. He handed one of the sodas to Caitlin, kissing her as he sat down next to her.

Caitlin, while normally happy to return her boyfriend's casual affections, wasn't forgetful of Felicity's recent break-up and didn't want tot do anything that could upset her. So she pulled away from Ronnie's lips almost the second that he kissed her and when she did he almost looked worried, but then he caught the glimmer of apology in her eyes and decided that she was ok.

"We were just talking about how it's a miracle my mom let me get in the car with you." His girlfriend informed him while he opened his soda.

"No kidding," he agreed, "I'm still afraid to go in when I drop you off later."

"Did she even tell you what time she wants you home?" Felicity questioned and Caitlin shook her head.

"No,"

"Whoa," The goth breathed with an expression that was mostly impressed, but had a little worry mixed in.

"You're telling me," Caitlin agreed, "I don't know if I should be worried about it or just go with it."

"Go with it," Felicity encouraged, finishing off her burger. "Don't push it, but go with it."

"I don't know," Caitlin muttered as Ronnie settled his arm around her. "I think I should just bring it up and ask her about it."

Ronnie nodded and, clearly by sheer habit, she leaned closer to him. Felicity knew when she was becoming a third wheel, and she also knew that Caitlin didn't want her to feel that way. But she didn't want to make her friend feel like she had to walk on eggshells around her, and so she excused herself and left Caitlin and Ronnie.

She wandered the yard for a few minutes until she found Winn chatting with two of Amaya's friends. The first she recognized immediately as Ray Palmer, and she tried to swallow the distaste that even the thought of him put into her mouth. She had known Ray since kindergarten, and he had been a thorn in her side nearly the entire time. It's not that he's been mean to her, she's pretty sure that kid isn't physically capable of being mean to anyone. But he's always been the smartest kid in class, rivaled only by her, and neither of them apparently takes well to competition. The other person there was Kara Danvers, whom Felicity knew from around and knew from the trip to Star City but other than that she didn't know her. She also didn't have anyone else to hang out with at the moment, and so she decided that she could put up with Ray Palmer for a few minutes if it meant being able to hid with Winn.

Unfortunately neither Winn nor Kara saw her approaching and, just as she got close enough for Ray to notice, they headed off. So now she was frozen awkwardly with Ray Palmer clearly watching her, daring her to move. Then, of all the things that could've happened, he moved. He walked over to her.

"Hey Felicity," he said, his voice surprisingly civil. "You excited for summer?"

"Yes," she answered lowly, "Are you?"

He shrugged at the question, "I guess," he replied, "It's going to be weird being an only child again, I've kind of gotten used to Amaya being right next door to my room. I mean, I know Nate actually lives next door but still, it's going to be strange not having Amaya in the house."

Felicity nodded, for once not immediately annoyed by the conversation with Ray, in fact she was almost interested. She never really thought about what living here this whole time must have been like for Amaya, adapting to not just a new country but a new family as well.

Speaking of Amaya, she was currently walking around the party with no real destination, that is, until she found Mick.

The boy in question was standing over by a tree with a can of soda in his hand, watching the crowd of people before him as they mingled and ran around with the Frisbee like children. For a moment she thought about turning around and going on her way, but she had nowhere to go and he looked a little lonely. So, taking a breath to brace herself, she continued on her path and it wasn't more than a few seconds that she was in front of him.

"You look like you're having fun," she teased but he didn't even smile, just took another sip of his soda.

"Are you?" He finally asked and the question caught her of guard.

"Yes," she replied, although not nearly as happily as someone who were truly having fun might.

"You don't sound like it," Mick observed, bluntly as usual.

Amaya hesitated for a moment, unsure of how to respond to that without completely spilling her guts to him.

"Just nervous," she finally decided on. "I'm leaving a lot behind."

"You left a lot behind there too," he reminded her and though she didn't want to admit it, so she wouldn't, it hurt.

She didn't want him telling her what she already knew, she didn't want him to remind her that her mother and grandparents are still back in Zembesi waiting for her, she didn't want him to encourage her to go. In that moment, she realized, she wanted more than anything for Mick Rory to ask her to stay. She wanted to know that after everything they've been through, she hadn't imagined all the changes she's seen in him.

"I'll be leaving a lot behind here," she mused, his gaze fell onto her in surprise at that, and for a split second she thought she might actually hear what she was hoping to.

For a second.

"Will you write to us?" he asked and she hoped he couldn't see her heart breaking inside of her chest.

"Of course," she promised, eyes flickering down before she walked away awkwardly, leaving Mick there to stare after her, and wishing he could tell her how much he needs her and will fall apart without her.

* * *

When Caitlin got home that night she found her mom on the living room couch watching some kind of cooking show. At first she just poked her head into the room, and when Carla didn't turn her focus away from her show Caitlin stepped fully into the room.

"Mom?" She said, her voice barely above a squeak.

"What?" Her mother replied, turning her head away from the television.

"Um… can I… Can I talk to you for a minute?"

"Is everything ok?" Carla asked, concern flooding her voice when she heard the uneasiness of Caitlin's request.

Caitlin nodded and headed slowly into the room, taking a seat on the couch and curling her legs under herself while her mom turned off the TV and turned on the light, sitting up straighter in the recliner as she did so.

"I'm just… I'm sorry, I'm just confused." Caitlin began, "I'm not complaining, but I just want to know if you're mad at me?" She asked and her mom arched an eyebrow.

"Mad at you?" She asked, "Sweetie, why would I be mad at you?"

"Because I went over to Felicity's in the middle of the night the other day, after you tried started to tell me I couldn't." Caitlin drawled as if the answer were obvious, which to her it was. Her mother, on the other hand, frowned at the logic and took some time to gather her thoughts before answering.

"Do you remember that day when you were four years old, and we were in the store, and you begged me to buy you that stuffed snowman with the nose hanging off it by a thread?" She asked and although Caitlin had no idea what any of this had to do with her mom's sudden disregard for her own rules, she decided to just go with it.

"You mean that old thing you put out at Christmas every year? With the really bad sewing job keeping it together?" She asked and with a wistful smile her mom nodded.

"You wouldn't take no for an answer," she reminded her daughter, "You were normally very good about the  _no means no_ rule, and usually didn't ask more than twice. You never threw tantrums in public, and generally you were content to simply store away the memory of anything that you wanted and write it on your birthday or Christmas list. But you kept begging for that snowman, and when I finally asked why you even wanted a broken toy in the first place you told me because no one else was going to want it, and it was never going to find a home." She explained and Caitlin, albeit still confused, smiled at the memory. "You've always been such a quiet girl Caity, you've always listened even when I could tell you didn't want to. But every once in awhile, when you know beyond a shadow of a doubt that what you're doing is right, there's this… this fire in you that won't back down. It reminds me a lot of your father."

Caitlin glanced sadly down at her lap; they had barely spoken a word about her father ever since he left. "I'm sorry," she murmured.

"Don't be," Carla insisted and Caitlin's head quickly snapped up. "I know I'm a strict mother Caity, after your brother and your father I think you can understand why. But you are getting older, and the other night you reminded me that I'm just going to have to trust you more. Now that doesn't mean I want you running off all the time, but maybe your system of leaving notes wasn't the worst, and I want you to call if you're going to be later than ten!"

Caitlin smiled at her mom's words, both because she was unbelievably grateful for them and because she found it almost funny how serious she was.

"Ok, thanks mom." She said with a grateful tear in her eye.

"You're welcome, now come give me a hug!" Her mom instructed and with a laugh Caitlin rose from the couch and went over to the chair where her mother was waiting with outstretched arms.

* * *

The ride to the airport, at five in the morning, was quiet. Henry was the one driving, obviously, while Amaya rode quietly in the passenger seat and his two grandsons' did the same in the back. They had insisted on coming and seeing her off, even though things lately had been a little awkward between her and Nate. Henry wasn't entirely sure why, though he suspected the older of his grandsons' had acted on his crush for their guest and it hadn't been reciprocated, poor kid. But he figured that it couldn't have gone too horribly if he was still volunteering to get out of bed at four a.m. and get in the car for over an hour just to prolong the time he would have with Amaya.

"You kids are quiet," the old man finally mused, trying to maybe embarrass a response out of even one of them.

"We're tired," Nate excused, the words were complete bullshit but Henry wouldn't call it, not this time.

It was silent in the car for another few minutes, and to Henry silence just did not feel right when he had three teenagers in the car.

"You guys have fun at the party yesterday?" He asked, deciding to attempt gearing the conversation at something that was, hopefully, less depressing than Amaya's impending departure.

"Yeah, thank you for letting us do it." Ray replied, he had spent the majority of the party yesterday talking to Felicity, which was odd because up until yesterday he had always found her hard-ass façade irritating, since it was painfully obvious that the punk who didn't care about any sort of rules was all just an act. But yesterday, and maybe it was her recent break-up with her boyfriend, she had seemed just a little more open and he got a glimpse at the kind and quirky spirit she hid underneath her make-up and hair dye, and he found that he liked it.

"Yes, thank you." Amaya echoed her friend's, her brother's really, words with sincerity. She owed Henry so much more than a thank you for allowing them to have the party.

When he first recruited her she had been worried about being alone in America, but he ensured that she never was. He was so much more than her coach. He had let her into his home this past year, had cared for her, and had treated her exactly as he treats Ray. He had accepted that so long as she was here he was to be her legal guardian and he did not take that responsibility lightly.

"No problem," the old man replied gruffly, "It's just too bad it had to be a kind of going away party for you." He said, sparing a glance over to the sad girl in his passenger seat.

"No kidding, especially that it had to be so soon. We're all going to miss you so much, and I know Mick especially could use you here with what's about to happen." Ray said solemnly and in front of him Amaya's brows knitted together in confusion.

"What are you talking about?" She demanded urgently, looking over her shoulder at him and watching as his face became as confused as hers.

"The adoption," he said it like it was obvious. "Remember, you said his foster parents were adopting him?"

"I know about that," Amaya nearly snapped, "What does it have to do with me?" She demanded and this time Ray's face flushed red as he suddenly was reminded Amaya has only been part of their family for a year, therefor she wasn't there when his parents died.

"Well… it's just that… I mean I was still a baby when my mom and dad died, and I don't know everything that happened, but grandpa didn't get to officially adopt me until I was almost three. It was a hard process, and I was just a baby. Mick has a record; they're not going to want to trust him back in the real world permanently. They're going to put the Diggles' through every test possible, and they're going to ask people to testify that not only can they handle Mick, but also that Mick deserves to even be eligible for adoption. His mentor being halfway around the world is going to be a big disadvantage."

Amaya felt her heart sink at his explanation. She knew that not only was what he was saying true, but disadvantage was putting it lightly. If someone wanted to take Mick away from John and Lyla, and she was back in Zembesi, well even a bad lawyer could make the case that Mick was a factor in driving her away and have no one to around to deny it. Mrs. Stein could probably help them to an extent if it came to that, but it wouldn't be nearly as effective as Amaya being there herself.

"We're here," Henry's announcement cut through Amaya's thoughts like a knife as they entered the airport parking lot.

* * *

There were many, many times, where Mick found himself questioning the sanity of both John and Lyla Diggle.

Today was certainly one of those days.

Lyla had been called to a meeting and after she had been gone for over an hour John decided that he would run down to the store and pick up some things for dinner, but Lyla's car had the car seats and so naturally John decided he would trust his arsonist of a foster son to stay behind and babysit the twins. But yet it was almost a full ten minutes after he agreed to the idea that Mick remembered he was an arsonist, so he considered that progress into achieving the title of  **former**  arsonist. He still thought John was being too trusting, but, as always, he just went with it.

The twins weren't really that hard to keep an eye on, as they mostly entertained each other. It didn't hurt that he had them in front of the TV either, the images of some cartoon time travel show holding their attention enough that when there was a knock on the door he trusted that he could walk ten feet with his back to them and nothing would bad would happen.

He didn't really know who to expect when he opened the door, he hoped it wasn't the social worker John had mentioned would probably stop over by the end of the month. It wasn't though; it was the last person whom Mick would've ever expected to see.

It was Amaya.

She stood there on the front step dressed in jean shorts and in orange tank top, her hair up in a ponytail like she was dressed for weather much hotter than an average June in Central City.

Then again, she was supposed to be landing in Africa.

"I thought your flight left this morning?" He asked her, wondering if maybe her flight had changed or something.

"It did," she confirmed, "I called the Zembesi airport to get ahold of my mom, I told her I wasn't getting on the plane."

Mick stood there gaping at her for a moment, completely dumbfounded.

"She was glad," Amaya went on, "She said she let me join Henry's team so that I could have a better life, and when she was here she could tell that I had found one."

Mick didn't know what suddenly took control of his actions, or how he was even capable of moving in his shocked state, but he reached out and the next thing he knew he was hugging Amaya close to him. She brought her arms up around his neck and held tight to him, assuring him that she was there and she wasn't leaving.

But he needed more proof than that.

On instinct Mick found himself stooping down just enough to capture Amaya's lips with his own, and she returned the kiss eagerly until a small cry in the background broke them apart. Grinning stupidly at each other as they pulled away the cry increased until Mick turned his head and saw Sarah, completely unharmed mind you, crying while her brother simply looked the other way.

"One second," Mick chuckled and Amaya giggled as he walked away from her and collected the wailing toddler into his arms.

She looked on with a soft smile as he tried, cluelessly, to calm his foster sister and she knew that she had made the right choice.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ta-Da! That's the end, well sort of. I'm going to be posting an epilogue as well as the bonus chapter, but this is the end of the actual story. Thank you guys so much for reading and for all the comments, they have really been the highlight of my days and kept this story going!


	28. Epilogue

With the school year over Principal Jay Garrick had mostly finished all of his reports and evaluations, with only a handful left to complete. The folder on the desk in front of him, however, wasn't the typical sort of evaluation. The folder in front of him contained all eight essays from the students who had participated in the trial run of Clarissa Stein's peer mentoring program. The club seemed like a good idea to Jay, in theory, and he liked the way that Clarissa cared enough about the students not only to start the program, but to put enough thought into it as to carefully select which students it was that she asked to be mentors. He wanted to be able to continue the program next year, so he was hoping that these essays could prove to him that would be the right call.

Taking a sip of his coffee he opened the folder and began reading through the papers.

_Amaya Jiwe_

_Mrs. Stein_

_Peer Mentor Group_

_23 May 2017_

**_Evaluation of Mick Rory_ **

_When Mrs. Stein asked me if I would be interested in mentoring a new student, to be perfectly honest I thought she was joking. I'm a new student myself, and I will be leaving at the end of this school year. I didn't think I could possibly know enough about this school to explain the ins and outs of it to a new student. But she assured me that, although I could say no, I was the one she wanted to be a mentor. I agreed, and I will forever be thankful that I did. I learned quickly why Mrs. Stein selected me to be the mentor of this particular student; it was because, although he was new to the school, he was not new to the other students. I learned that Mick Rory came into school with a bad history with pretty much every single one of his peers, my own host brother and cousin included. The rumors about where he had been for the past two years spread like wildfire, and he even confirmed some of them. I tried my hardest to be nice to him, but Mick seemed to have it in his head that I was only using him for honor society points. Getting through to Mick was infuriating, but once I did he seemed to change overnight. I watched him make things right with people he'd hurt in the past, get a part time job, and even do something completely selfless for someone else. I sincerely hope that this program doesn't end, even if I will no longer be able to be a part of it. There are other kids like Mick in our school, and they need this program._

Jay smiled at the essay; he had heard that Amaya had since decided to remain in Central City, meaning that she most likely will continue with the program next year if it goes on. He moved on to the next essay, briefly he thought about reading the essay's of partners one right after the other, but instead he simply opted to make his way through the stack from top to bottom.

_Helena Bertinelli_

_5/22/17_

**_Vic_ **

_My mom wanted me put into this program. She thought it would be good for me, she thought that maybe they might pair me with someone who would help me with channeling my anger, as she put it. I think she just started getting worried when I was caught shoplifting. Anyway, Vic, in short, is nuts. Seriously, every time I think I've seen it all with Vic, I haven't even scratched the weird surface. The kid thinks everything is a conspiracy. But his strange hobbies aside, he's actually very sweet. My dad's been in prison for over a year now and Vic convinced me to go see him. It wasn't exactly a magic fix, but I've been back once since and it's getting easier to think about him. I'm not saying that Vic's turned me into a model citizen, but I've stopped shoplifting and plotting out ways to take revenge on my dad for getting caught. He's a good kid, and he's become more than a mentor to me. I know I'm not perfect, but please don't blame him for any of my detentions, missing assignments, or legal misdemeanors. I might be beyond the point of fixing, but he's trying._

Jay chuckled to himself as he finished reading Helena's paper. She'd been on his radar since before the school year even started. He knew that her father, Frank Bertinelli, had ties to the mafia and was currently serving a life sentence for smuggling drugs. He also knew that her mother was fighting tooth and nail to hold onto custody of Helena, and he knew that she was no angel herself. But maybe there was more to Helena than he'd thought; he would have to look into her.

Keeping that in mind, he moved onto the next paper in the folder.

_Leonard Snart_

_6/11/17_

_Peer Mentor Group_

**_Sara Lance_ **

_I was only in school for half of the year, plus most of September; I came back in January, but still went through a lot that I don't think I would've made it through without help from Sara Lance. I started freshman year late, after being released from Juvie. I was only there for three months and when I got back I found out that, as part of my release, I was going to be enrolled in a peer-mentoring group. I was told that my mentor would be checking in with me to make sure I kept up with my assignments and was to be someone I felt I could talk to. Long story short I didn't think that I would be seeing much of her after the first few days._

_I was wrong._

_While we were helping out at the community picnic Sara noticed some of the marks that my father has left on my sister, and while most people might have just looked the other way, Sara did something about it. For years I believed my father when he told me all the horror stories of a foster system even more abusive than he is, so I've always kept my mouth shut. But Sara didn't. She spoke up and now both my sister and myself are safe. Sara has also been my confidant throughout the whole process, and her mother even let my sister and I stay with them right after we were removed from our father's care and had nowhere else to go. I've never wanted anyone to take on my problems, but Sara didn't give me much of a choice. This program is one that kids like me will complain about all day long, but we do need it. In some cases it might be more effective than in others, in my case it saved my life._

To read about Leonard Snart off all high school students praising not only the program he was forced into, but also another student, well Jay knew that it meant something. He looked at the clock and decided that he would read one more of the essays before taking a break for dinner.

_Sara Lance_

_6/1/17_

**_Roles Reversed_ **

_When I moved to Central City at the start of this school year I remember seeing Leonard in the halls every once in awhile but I never thought anything of him, in fact I didn't even notice it when he was gone. But at that time I had no idea he was going to become such an important part of my life. My mom works with Professor Martin Stein at the University, and so with it just being the two of us at home they invited us to spend Christmas with them. That was where Mrs. Stein started talking to me about a peer-mentoring group she had started. She told me that Leonard Snart, again a name I barely knew at the time, would be joining the program and that I would just be perfect as his mentor. I'll admit it, the only reason I accepted was because Mrs. Stein is nearly impossible to say no to, unless you want to watch her heart break. So I agreed to try and remind this kid to do his homework in exchange for some honor society service points. Then things got complicated. The entire mentoring group helped out at the community picnic at the rec center, and Leonard brought along his younger sister Lisa. While painting some body art onto her arm I noticed a few scars that looked suspicious, and after comparing that with a few other troubling behaviors of Leonard's I got worried that maybe his home life wasn't the best. I reported it, but I never dreamed anything would come of it._

_When my mom told me that the police had called, that Lewis Snart was in custody and Leonard and Lisa needed a place to stay for the weekend, my entire world froze. I couldn't believe that I had been right, that something so horrible had really been happening to Leonard and his sister all this time. By the time we got to the station I was completely numb, my body simply going through motions without any direction from my mind throughout that entire night until Leonard and I ended up watching a movie together on the couch. He asked me about the pictures of my sister, and I told him about my parents' divorce and the split custody arrangement they have. At first I felt guilty, but he told me that he was happy to focus on someone else's problems for a minute, and I needed it. After that he and Lisa were separated, and so he became the only one who really understood what I was going through. We would talk for hours about our sisters, our fathers, everything. When the time came that I did in fact see my sister again, I was scared, but he stayed by me the entire time. When seeing her didn't end in the way that I had hoped it would, Leonard held my hand and told me he was sorry. I know that I was supposed to be his mentor and help him, and I know that I did, but he helped me more than I think he knows._

"Jay," Jay heard his wife calling his name just as he finished Sara's essay, and he smiled to himself as he put it down.

"I'm coming," he called back, knowing that he was already late for dinner.

By the time Jay returned to his home office it was getting late, and he knew that he could put the rest of the mentoring students' essays off until the morning. But, oddly enough, he didn't want to. He wanted to finish reading them before going to bed tonight, that way he would be able to sleep on all the information and decide whether or not to continue the program sooner. So, with a sip from his newly refilled coffee cup, he picked up the next essay and began.

_Felicity Smoak_

_5/29/17_

**_Mentor Evaluation_ **

_Ok, let me just make this clear; forcing kids to join a club should be illegal. Seriously, I don't think there is one person in this program who actually wanted to join, mentors included. So next year, you should seriously consider making this thing something the students sign up for themselves, not something their parents throw them in. Of course with that system you probably wouldn't get a whole lot of members. Anyway, my mom forced me into this and Caitlin Snow was assigned to fix me. At first I think I actually drove her crazier than she drove me, and that's saying something. She was always on my case about homework and how I said things that could get me into trouble, none of which I care about. Frankly I thought she was pathetic, letting herself be held down by a social hierarchy that has no business existing. I convinced a friend to get an old crush of hers to talk to her; I figured maybe it would show her that she doesn't have to be so outspoken and shy. I was shocked when this old crush ended up asking her out, but taking pride in knowing that I had started this, I volunteered myself to help her get ready for her first date._

_Going to her house that night I started to realize why Caitlin is the way she is. Her mom is… well she's cold. Not literally, obviously, and she isn't abusive or anything, but she's suffered a lot of loss and I think that's why she keeps Caitlin at a distance. I found out that she tells Caitlin what does, and especially what doesn't, make her look pretty. She works long hours and likes to keep a strict watch on who Caitlin is hanging out with. She's nothing like my mom, who has made it her mission to be overly involved in my personal life without restricting me from having one. It got me thinking about how stupid half the fights I get into with my mom are, and that she may be embarrassing but she puts up with so much shit from me. I know that she doesn't like how I dress, but she doesn't tell me that. So yeah, Caitlin did a pretty good job of fixing me, with more than just school._

Jay smirked at the essay, for such a bright girl Felicity could certainly be closed-minded; he had seen Caitlin Snow around school in the past few weeks holding hands with Ronnie Raymond and smiling brightly, unlike her previous, walking with her head down, self. It was a shame that Felicity couldn't see how much of an influence she'd had.

_Victor Sage_

_Mrs. Stein_

_Peer Mentor Group_

_21 May 2017_

**_Peer-Mentoring Evaluation of Helena Bertinelli_ **

_I like puzzles._

_I am a person who enjoys piecing together things that others may not look closely enough to see. Helena Bertinelli proved to be an easy puzzle to solve; a little girl forced to grow up at fourteen because her father has been arrested for drug smuggling, a crime that she doesn't fully comprehend and frankly neither do I, while her mother gets a second job to scrape together enough money to provide for the two of them and not lose their house. She's scared and she's lonely, that was enough for me to agree to it when Mrs. Stein asked I volunteer as her peer mentor. Her toughness and rough edges are all an act, but if she isn't careful they will become real someday. I agreed to be her mentor because I thought that maybe having a friend around might help keep her from screwing up her future. But there was one aspect of Helena that I didn't see coming; she's like me._

_From the moment we were partnered up Helena eyed me skeptically, studying me the way that I often study my puzzles. She would, still does actually, tell me that I'm looking too closely into things. She tells me that my notebooks filled with connecting webs about how the world is going to end are a waste of my times, but yet she scans carefully over each one. She tries to decipher me the same way that I thought I deciphered her. I should be able to predict her, but I am never able to. Strangely enough… I think I'm ok with that. She's shown me that it's ok to not always know what's going to happen next, as long as you trust the person you're with, everything will work out ok._

Jay snickered at the paper as he put it down, and made a mental note to keep a closer eye on Victor Sage; as that was now two essays that brought his sanity into question. But he was sure that it was all adolescent curiosity and so he moved on to the next paper.

_Caitlin Snow_

_Mrs. Stein_

_Peer Mentor Report_

_27 May 2017_

**_My Mentee_ **

_Felicity Smoak is a textbook rebel. She tries too hard to come off as the tough girl, she says that the social dynamics of high school, and the rest of the world for that matter, are stupid. She dresses in all black and dyes her hair solely for the purpose of spiting her mom, even though I'm pretty sure such a feat is impossible. Not to mention that she doesn't do her homework solely so she'll get detention to keep up her image, the girl actually has an IQ that borders on genius and can easily do her homework. When I was first partnered up with her I wanted to tear my hair out, how do you help someone who doesn't want to be helped?_

_She showed me that the answer was to take small steps. Felicity, always trying to prove her view of the world correct, decided that she was going to prove to me that the social ladder of high school was all just an illusion. The crazy thing is, she was right. Felicity's a freshman outcast, but she bargained with a senior hockey player to get one of his football friends talking to me. That football player was Ronnie Raymond, who I have known ever since elementary school but was always too shy to speak to. I know it was supposed to be my job to help Felicity, but I honestly think she helped me even more. She showed me that I don't need to be afraid of my peers; she helped me come out of my shell. Felicity is doing better in school now, I got her to give the tech club a chance and it's all that she talks about now. She's beginning to drop her "Rebel Without a Cause" complex as well; wearing her glasses more and letting the dye fade from her hair. She's been doing more of her work and mouthing off less, landing her in less detention. I think that both of us have really benefited from this program, and it's going to be hard to leave her behind when I graduate at the end of next year._

Finished with Caitlin's assessment, Jay made a mental note to go back over Felicity's later. He wanted to talk with Clarissa about her, maybe once Caitlin graduates she could continue in the program as a mentor herself. Anyway, he moved onto the next, and final, paper.

_Mick Rory_

**_Amaya_ **

_Every day of my life has been the same for the past two years. I've woken up in my cell in Juvie, hung out in the yard during the day, and then gone back into my cell at night. Every once in awhile they sent me to the shrink, but that was the only change. Then I finally got out of Juvie and they put me in with a foster family, along with threw me back into school. Juvie was supposed to be the punishment for what I did, but I think high school did a much better job of that. After two years I had to see all of the kids I used to know, only I didn't know them anymore. Not many of my classmates ever really liked me, but to go back and have them looking at me like I was some kind of monster was worse than all the time I spent in my cell. At least the other kids in Juvie got it. They understood that I didn't want to talk about what I did. But here everyone wanted to know. I don't blame them; I think that if I was a normal person and some kid who was rumored to have murdered his parents showed up I would want to know the truth too. My point is that Amaya wasn't like that. She treated me like an actual person, even after she was warned about me she still wanted to help me. She treated me like I was her friend, not just some problem kid she got saddled with. When I left Juvie, I'll be honest I thought I would end up going back. I think I would have to, if Amaya hadn't been there. Every time I got scared, every time I started thinking about what I had done and the guilt was eating me alive, she was there. She was right there to remind me that, even though it seemed like it, the entire world was not out to get me. As the year went on, even though I was only there for half of it, I realized she was right. People didn't care as much and I was able to just live my life. I'm going to miss Amaya more than anything when she leaves, she's the reason that I got my life back._

Mick Rory was not a kid whom Jay would've pegged for be sentimental, but it seemed as though all of these kids were full of surprises. Glancing at the clock he decided that he had better go upstairs to bed and sleep on his impending decision as he planned. Although he doubted that his mind was going to change during the night. This program was a great idea, and he was going to tell Clarissa as much.


	29. Bonus Chapter: In Another Life

Sparks flew and various pieces of metal and tech clanged against the ground as the Waverider plowed into the earth, in the middle of what the team was hoping was an empty field.

"Oh man, one landing!" Jax shouted amidst all the moans of pain and semi-consciousness that were currently filling the bridge of the Waverider. "All I'm asking is just one landing without destroying the ship!"

"To be fair, we had a little interference." Sara snapped in defenses, they had spent the past four months not only repairing the Waverider but also fixing the timeline piece by piece, primarily by using the jump ship. However, when they fixed the final irregularity in LA the timeline going totally back to normal had caused a massive time quake, a good one, but still one that knocked the barely functioning Waverider around every corner of the time stream.

"Besides, this bucket of bolts has taken far worse." Mick grumbled, kicking his flight seat as though to prove his point, which backfired when the seat fell over of course.

"Yeah, the damage doesn't look like anything we can't fix." Ray piped up, ignoring Mick's actions and his ever-optimistic smile not faltering for even a second and Jax rolled his eyes in annoyance, sometimes Ray was too much even for him.

"When are we Gideon?" Sara called up to the ceiling, the rest of the crew staggering on their feet about as much as she was, which was a lot, and trying to get their bearings.

"Actually Captain Lance, I believe you would be more interested in  _where_ we have landed as apposed to  _when_." The AI happily chirped in reply, unaffected by the sloppy landing as always.

"What do you mean?" Sara asked,

"The time quake, aided by the Waverider's controls only being partially stables, was able to send the ship through a wormhole and into an alternate time stream. We have landed on June 16th 2017, however we are in the dimension that you would refer to as Earth 40. My records indicate that it is very similar to Earth 1, however due to a vast number of both minor and major historical differences, the technology here is slightly behind that of Earth 1, and is more comparable to what existed during the late 1990's and early 2000's." The AI explained,

"Well at least it's a good a time," Nate commented and some of the others nodded in agreement.

"Jax, how long do you think we'll be stuck here?" Sara asked the resident engineer as he looked around, assessing the damage done in their landing.

"If you guys can handle a few of the basic repairs, probably not more than two days. But we'll need to get some parts." He guessed and Sara nodded.

"What happens if we run into our counterparts while we're here?" Ray asked,

"Avoid them," Sara instructed immediately, "We don't want to risk any confusion, be it on this ship or for the people here."

"Actually Captain, it is very unlikely that any mix ups would occur if any of you were to meet your counterparts." Gideon chimed in and briefly Sara wondered if she had been damaged in the crash, she did realize what team she was talking to right?

"Why is that Gideon?" She asked instead, opting to hear the AI out in her reasoning.

"In this timeline, all of your counterparts were born many years later than you were in the Earth 1 timeline. For example, Professor Stein was not born until 1970, and Mr. Jackson not until late 2011."

"Hold up, I'm five here?" Jax questioned incredulously, annoyed that even on this earth he was still the baby of the group.

"And I'm assuming you have not become Firestorm." Martin put in,

"Correct," Gideon confirmed, "In fact, on this earth meta humans and vigilantes exist only in movies and children's cartoons."

"Definitely a simpler time," Ray commented from the back of the group.

"What about the rest of or counterparts?" Nate asked, his curiosity getting the better of him.

"The rest of your counterparts are all very close in age, having been born between the years of 2000 and 2002." Gideon answered and it took them all a second to do the mental math.

"So… most of us are teenagers then?" Amaya asked and Sara snorted.

"What's so funny Blondie?" Mick asked,

"Nothing," the chuckling captain replied, "Just imagining the chaos of what would happen if all our counterparts went to high school together." She explained with a joking grin, one that Gideon's next words wiped clean off of her face.

"Actually Captain, all six of your counterparts are currently enrolled in Central City Public High School."

The entire team looked shocked at that, their faces nearly pale as they tried to imagine their teenage selves all in one building.

"Gideon, how different from our timeline is this one exactly?" Amaya was the one who voiced the question, curious about a lot of things but mostly if it was true that her counterpart was here or if she was in Zembesi.

"I'm sorry Ms. Jiwe, but I do not have enough data to calculate the exact similarities. However, many of your younger selves lives are similar to those of your own, and will most likely differ more as they grow older. For example, here Dr.'s Heywood and Palmer share a common ancestor in Henry Heywood as their grandfather, making the two of them cousins."

"Cool," Ray approved with a grin and Nate nodded in acceptance.

"Other differences include the divorce of Dinah and Quentin Lance occurring much earlier, thus separating Captain Lance and her sister Laurel when they each chose to live with one parent full time. Mr. Rory, instead of running away from each foster home he was placed into after his first release from the juvenile detention center, is currently in the process of being adopted by his first foster parents. You, Ms. Jiwe, still came to the United States at the age of fourteen, only you were drafted to Central City to train for the Junior Olympics rather than Washington D.C. with the Justice Society of America." Gideon raddled off what were apparently some of the major differences between this timeline and their own.

Everyone was speechless for a moment, trying to process all of these changes and what life might be like for their counterparts. Amaya, out of habit, glanced over at Mick, her mind replaying what Gideon had said about him.

"Sounds we're doing ok on this earth, for the most part." Ray finally commented and Sara nodded in agreement.

"Yeah, let's fix the ship before we screw it up for them."

* * *

With there being such an age difference between the Legend's and their Earth 40 counterparts there really shouldn't be too much damage that they could cause even if they took their sweet time fixing the ship. However, Sara Lance knows her team. She also knows that she used to be among the top three troublemakers on it (a title that she may still hold, depending on who you ask). So she knew that it wouldn't take more than twenty minutes for anyone not working on repairs to head out and look for their alternate selves.

They got an address out of Gideon, the home of Henry Heywood, where supposedly most of their alternate selves would be gathering for a party this afternoon.

"Weird to think what it would've been like," Ray commented as he, Nate, and Amaya hid in the bushes at the edge of the yard, the ones that divided the house's property from the next one.

"It's weird to think of you as my cousin," Nate replied and Amaya fixed him with a deadpan look.

"Somehow I'm not having trouble picturing you two being related." She commented and while both men looked offended for about half a second they weren't going to turn it into an argument, it's not like they don't consider each other family anyway.

"Stay in the yard Jefferson," a deep voice said from behind the group.

They turned their heads just enough to see into the, previously uninteresting, yard behind them, where they saw a little boy sitting himself down on a concrete patio with a bucket of chalk.

"Hey, your grandfather lives next door to little Jax!" Ray beamed, momentarily forgetting that on this earth Henry is his grandfather as well.

"So which one of you is that?" Amaya spoke up and directed the attention of the men back to the yard they were supposed to be watching, where a teenage boy had appeared walking and muttering to himself as he spread out a table cloth.

Nate looked at the teen with a wondrous expression on his face, this boy may be a different version of himself but it was still the spitting image of him as a teenager.

"It's me," he confirmed and just at that second his, along with Ray's and Amaya's, face pinched in pain as a high pitched whining sound filled their ears, the cause being their comm links.

"Sorry," Sara's voice came just as the pain and accompanying sound faded out. "Stein is resetting the comms so they work, apparently the frequency changes between earths. Where are you guys?" She asked, they hadn't exactly told her that they were sneaking off to spy on their alternate selves, but she had figured that much out.

So, Ray gave her the address.

* * *

Sara convinced herself that when their three missing teammates hadn't returned after an hour, that she only brought Mick along with her for the extra help in dragging them back to the ship before they got caught. In actuality, she had to admit she was curious. Ever since she returned to Star City all those years ago, only to find her parents divorced, she had wondered what life might have been like had they divorced sooner. She'd wondered, and even considered asking, if they had only remained in their marriage for the benefit of their children. She hoped not, as neither she nor Laurel would've wanted that, and she didn't suspect they did. Still, landing on an earth where they did divorce sooner, it made her wonder.

By the time that she and Mick got to the house where the others where supposedly stalking their counterparts they found a beginning of summer party in full swing.

"How are we supposed to tell which one's are young Nate and Ray?" Sara questioned, knowing those were exactly the two whom their teammates would be hiding somewhere around.

"Don't-"

Mick cut himself off, his words dying on his lips as his eyes locked onto something. Sara followed his gaze, and surprisingly it led to a younger version of herself standing exceptionally close to an unfamiliar teenager, a boy with pale skin and curly brown hair.

She pulled Mick into a nearby row of bushes, as they were about to be caught, and crawled with him following behind her until she was sure they were safe.

"What-"

"It was Snart," he cut off her question before she could even ask it, all of her anger at him for nearly getting them caught instantly dissipating as she processed what he had said. "That kid mini you was with," he went on, "It's the same shrimp who nearly got himself killed his first day in Juvie."

Sara blinked, still trying to process the information, because her counterpart had been standing so close to that boy.

"Come on," she whispered to Mick, nodding her head forward as she crawled ahead some more, wanting to get behind her younger self.

But Mick didn't follow; instead he backed out of the bushes and, presumably, went off to continue the search for their friends.

"That would've been nice," she heard her young counterpart say, flirtation evident in her voice to the point where Sara rolled her eyes.

"Can I ask you a question?" The boy asked in a cracking voice that Sara could perfectly envision one day shaping into that smooth drawl she found herself missing every day.

"What's up?" Sara wanted to leave, her gut shouting at her that she did not want to hear what was about to come next. But she was rooted in her spot, her curiosity over the teenagers overpowering her better judgment.

"I uh…" He paused and cleared his throat, giving her one final opportunity to crawl away but she wouldn't take it. "I was wondering if maybe you'd like to go out sometime?"

He sounded nervous, and sure he was talking to a fourteen or fifteen-year-old Sara Lance, unaware that another version of her was listening in, but Sara still felt as though a bucket filled with ice water had been dumped onto her head. This kid, he wasn't nearly as guarded as the Leonard she lost, otherwise he wouldn't have been so direct with his question. But he had a thing for her counterpart, just like she knew Barry and Iris are married on Earth 2. She had wondered ever since learning about that if some people are always destined to find each other no matter what earth they're on. A logical side of her knew that she was watching teenagers, and that their relationship most likely won't last, but still, she couldn't help the pang of envy that she felt when watching her teenage counterpart intertwine her hand with Leonard's.

"Sara," It was Nate's voice in her ear that snapped her out of the moment, "Ray and I are heading back to the ship."

"Ok," Ok she whispered back, her finger on the earpiece mostly to remind her of her reality, "I'm coming."

* * *

How Amaya had found herself up in a tree she would rather not say, but she knew that she and the boys should have high tailed it away from the party when more people started showing up. Now she was trapped here, waiting for some bored kid to move on and find a new place to mope so that she could leave undetected.

"Hey!" A voice hissed and her heart nearly leapt out of her chest, unlike the others she was still relatively close in age to her counterpart and would hardly look much older in comparison, especially if her counterpart were on the older side of Gideon's age pool and not the younger. So her being caught didn't mean explaining an adult spying on a bunch of teenagers, but explaining why there was a second Amaya.

Turning her head to look over her shoulder, not moving from her crouched position in the tree branch, she exhaled in relief when she saw that it was Mick, her Mick, calling from her, Nate, and Ray's previous hiding place.

"Use the comm," she muttered, pressing her earpiece. "You're going to get us caught,"

"What are you watching me for?" Came the reply and Amaya screwed her face up in complete bewilderment.

"What are you talking about?" She demanded, "You're the one who-wait, that moping kid is the other you?" She asked when it clicked what he really meant, and as if on cue her counterpart approached his.

Mick never replied, and she didn't ask again for a reply. They both remained in their hiding places, listening to the conversation below them. From what she could gather, Amaya figured that her counterpart was facing a decision not unlike the one she made between 1942 and the Waverider. She talked about leaving things behind, practically begging her Mick to tell her to stay. But he didn't, he let her walk away, and Amaya felt her heart break all over again, with a pain she thought she'd already buried.

* * *

Repairs to the Waverider were finished by late that night, and so Sara brought them all into the temporal zone to get some rest. As she exited her flight seat, being the only one on the bridge, she paced the floor aimlessly for a moment before coming to a halt at the main console.

"Hey Gideon?" She called,

"Yes Captain?" The AI answered back and Sara took a moment before responding, debating whether she really wanted to voice her question or not.

"Can you… can you tell me what happens to the me from the timeline we were just in?"

"You wish to know your Earth 40 counterpart's future?" Gideon asked for confirmation.

"Is that ok?" Sara asked, wondering if somehow knowing the future of an alternate version of herself could still be as dangerous as knowing her own future.

"Of course," the living computer responded and it took a second for her to compile the data that she was looking for. "Sara Lance of Earth 40 will join The Lantern Corp, Earth 40's version of your Peace Corp, after high school. She will spend two years in Tanzania Africa before returning home and enrolling at Central City University to study early elementary education. Partway through her junior year she will marry her high school boyfriend, the Earth 40 counterpart of Leonard Snart. She will go on to become an elementary school teacher and the mother to three children."

When Gideon finished Sara remained nearly frozen, leaning on the monitor deep in thought. Her counterpart, on this earth anyway, was set to have a fairly ordinary life. She was sure there would be some challenges, some difficulties along the way that her other self would struggle to move past, but ultimately she would be with Leonard, she would even have his children, and it sounded like she would be happy.

"Thanks Gideon," she muttered lowly before turning to make her way to her room, all she wanted right now was to curl up into a ball and sleep away all the images of what she and Snart could've had.

* * *

Mick was four beers in to his nightly routine of drinking himself into unconsciousness when, all of a sudden, a relentless pounding sounded from the other side of his door. With a grunt he got up from his chair and staggered his way over to answer it, setting his beer down on a table in the process.

"What blew up?" He demanded just before the door opened and he saw, of all people, Amaya standing on the other side and tapping her toe impatiently, her arms folded across her chest. "What do you want?"

"Are you a complete blockhead on every earth!?" She demanded furiously, not to mention out of nowhere.

"Blockhead?" he asked, blinking at her. "Oh yeah, sometimes I forget you're from the 40's." He rumbled, turning away and heading back into his room but she marched right past him and knocked the beer from his hand when he went to pick it back up.

He glowered at her when she did that, because nobody has the right to get between him and his beer, but she glared right back in challenge, daring him to do something about it.

He conceded with a sigh.

"Do you have any idea how disappointed I was when you joined the Legion of Doom?" She questioned him, her hands settling accusingly on her hips.

"We're bringing that up?" He asked,

"Yes, we're bringing that up." She answered firmly, "I had tried, I tried so hard to be your friend but when it came down to it none of that mattered to you-"

"I asked you to go with me!" Mick roared in her face, "I've apologized for what I did, I won't do it again, but at the time I did ask you to go with me!"

"And when I didn't you let Damian Darhk keep me as his pet!"  
"HE WANTED TO KILL YOU!"

They both stopped, their chests heaving with angry breaths as they slowly began to calm.

"Merlin and Darhk," Mick went on, his voice much quieter but still gruff as ever. "They wanted to kill all of you, Thawne said no, that it would be more fun to keep you alive and wipe your minds." He grimaced, as though the words tasted sour on his tongue. "They looked to Snart and me, Snart didn't really seem to care either way what they did with you, so I sided with Thawne."

"And you think that makes it better?" Amaya scoffed, taking a step closer to him. "I understand why you betrayed us, I do." She assured him, "But you let Darhk do whatever he pleased with me-"

"It kept you alive," He interjected but Amaya merely rolled her eyes.

"While I realize that the Legion didn't see you as much more than a pawn, you still could've made your life however you wanted with the spear." She told him, her voice sad and almost longing, but still unspeakably angry. "You let them put me in Star City, far away from you!"

"I was trying to protect you," Mick grumbled but with watery eyes Amaya shook her head.  
"No," she insisted, "You were trying to protect yourself."

With that she pushed past him to leave the room, and he almost let her get away, but just as she made it to the door he spoke up.

"Why did you stay?" He asked, turning around after he did to see her watching him, waiting for him to continue. "After we defeated the Legion, why didn't you go back to 1942?"

She smirked, actually looked down at her feet and smirked before meeting his eyes again. "Because I'm a blockhead," she answered, all her previous fury suddenly gone from her voice and replaced by wistfulness. "Because I know you'll never believe staying with you could be what's best for me, on any earth by the looks of it." She giggled as she approached him. "But I never thought I would find someone who understands what it's like to live with the animal, so I'd like to at least try and hold on to that." She said and maybe it was the beer talking, even though he was only a little ways past buzzed, but Mick reached out and pulled her to him, his lips crashing against hers.

Amaya returned the kiss readily, happily, and maybe she and Mick are just as hardheaded as those teenagers they spied on earlier today. Maybe that's their fate on every earth: for him to be a stubborn ass and for her to keep waiting for him to stop. Maybe other versions of them will be locked in that dance forever, but when it came to the two of them, it was time they broke the cycle.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The story is complete! I want to say thank you to everyone who has taken the time to read this story and everyone who has commented at one time or another. You guys are great and thank you for sticking with me as I gave this High School AU a chance, so glad that I did! Thank you again!


End file.
